


Puella Magi Pastel Magica

by noctaliza



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game), Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, Bleeding, Blood, Idols, Magical Girls, Moca is the ultimate memelord, Mystery, Vague mentions of blood/bleeding, Wounds, glass shards, glass wounds, hand wounds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-05-24 10:26:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 58,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14952902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noctaliza/pseuds/noctaliza
Summary: In a world where witches exist in the shadows, Pastel*Palettes eventually falls into a double life of defending their city from such beings.





	1. I Think We're Missing Something...

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter feels...too short, but I planned on making these longer and longer, so I guess this is alright.  
> I somehow manage to make a PMMM AU out of everything, so, uh... Don't mind me.

I like to believe I, in this crazy flip-flop of a world, have a good heart. Even with everything that's come my way or even our way, I've still kept my head held high and the stars shining bright. It's something I've been admiring about myself lately, as conceited as it probably sounds.  
  
But it's kept me going, so I'll keep letting my brain tell me it.  
  
Today could probably be chalked up to, cliché undertones definitely not intended, a normal day. It played about just like any other: school, then meet up with everyone else for band practice.  
  
I don't know. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, which was a weird sight for this part of Spring. Maybe Mother Nature was telling me to give it my all again today.  
  
I'd found most of the group -- Chisato, Eve, and Maya -- in our usual rehearsal room. Eve and Chisato were chatting on the sofa by the door, while Maya was adjusting the levels of the microphones we use.  
  
As soon as I opened the door, Chisato locked onto me.  
  
"Ah, Aya-chan," she greeted me with. "Hina-chan isn't with you?" Eve turned to calmly wave at me.  
  
"Hina-cha--...?" I waved back and scanned the room again. If Hina was here, she would've noticed me coming in by now. "No, I..."  
  
But don't Hina and Maya go to the same school?  
  
"She didn't come with you, Maya-chan?" I headed over to her to peek around the side, so I didn't disrupt what she was doing.  
  
"Oh--" Maya slowly let go of the microphone with one hand to wave at me with the other, turning her head to see me.  
  
"Hello, Aya-san," she nodded, adjusting her glasses with her now free hand. "And no, she didn't..." And right back to the microphone. "She hasn't lately. Maybe her club has an event coming up?"  
  
"What if we follow her after school tomorrow?" Eve suggested, already looking rather determined.  
  
"That'd be an invasion of privacy..." Chisato shot the idea down with a wary grin.  
  
Before Eve could come up with another idea, in came Hina herself, slamming the door back open.  
  
"Suh--... Sorry I'm--..." Clearly out of breath, Hina held her palm over her chest, making the strength of her panting more obvious. "-- Sorry I'm late...! I had to--...to help pah--...pass out fliers."  
  
I cocked my head to the side. "Fliers?"  
  
"For us?" Eve mimicked my confusion.  
  
Chisato seemed to have caught my drift, chiming in. "If they're...fliers for the band, you should've come and gotten us."  
  
"But they were brand new...!" Hina hopped a little in place. She already seemed like she was back to normal, compared to just a couple moments ago. "I didn't have enough time! I'm sorry!"  
  
Chisato slid off the sofa to walk over to Hina. "But still... We haven't even see--"  
  
And as soon as she stepped in front of her, she froze in place. From this angle, I couldn't see where she was looking, but Eve was confusedly darting her eyes back and forth from Chisato to Hina. "Chisato-san...?"  
  
But she wouldn't budge from where she was standing. We all probably looked at the two of them in silence for a few minutes. Even Maya turned around to see what was up.  
  
It wasn't until Chisato cleared her throat that all the quiet was finally broken. "Anyway... Please come and get us next time, okay? We haven't seen the new fliers yet."  
  
"I know, I know..." Hina replied, apparently dejected after their exchange.  
  
Practice seemed to go as smooth as it could have, save for Chisato's frequent glaring towards the sofa.  
  
Was there something the rest of us were missing...? It sure felt like it. Maybe there was something here that only Hina and Chisato could see...  
  
But that didn't make any sense. That would have to require magic, wouldn't it? We don't live in a world like that. Besides, we were all close enough to be able to tell each other what the issue is, right?  
  
I wanted to make sure of that. When it was time for us to head home for the night, I followed Chisato out.  
  
"Chisato-chan!" I called out after her, since she'd left before the rest of us.  
  
When she stopped and turned to me, I tacked on my question. "What happened when Hina-chan came in earlier...? You two were just staring at each other for a while..."  
  
"Oh..." She seemed taken aback by my question, but quickly resorted to clearing her throat and pushing a couple strands back over her shoulder. "It's--... It's nothing. Really. I'm sorry to have worried you, though."  
  
I don't know what it was about the moonlight, but a ray of it seemed to bounce off her ring and illuminate the golden gem in the middle of the silver. Weirdly specific, but it worked perfectly.  
  
Chisato quickly bowed and turned away from me to continue walking ahead. "If you'll excuse me."  
  
...She's always had that ring, hasn't she? What made it stand out so much now?


	2. Maybe We Should Check?

"Aya-san!"  
  
Eve trotted on after me in the hallway, school bag slung over her shoulder.  
  
The final chime of the school bell finally let the students of Hanasakigawa head home for the day, or switch gears to go to their respective clubs for a while.  
  
"Eve-chan?" I slowed down a bit so we could walk together. "I thought you had a club meeting today."  
  
"The Kendo Club!" she nodded in validation. "Yes! But I wanted to talk to you."  
  
"To me...?" I tilted my head a bit. Did she want to go over a couple melodies? It made sense, for a day off.  
  
"About last night," Eve reminded me. "Did you figure out anything from Chisato-san?"  
  
"Oh!" Last night! Of course that was what she meant! I should've known.  
  
It finally clicked, but all I could give her was a shake of the head. "Not really. She wouldn't tell me anything. Just said it wasn't important and walked off."  
  
I always did wonder if there was something that Chisato wasn't allowed to tell us, but whenever it was brought up amongst us while she was away, we could only chalk it up to it being about a drama she's not allowed to talk about or a secret project she's a part of. But there was something about last night that felt a lot more secretive.  
  
It honestly didn't make any sense. Why would Chisato just stare Hina down like that? And for so long! It's almost as if they were talking to each other with some kind of telepathy thing.  
  
But magic doesn't exist in this world, so it can't be something like that.  
  
"Maybe Chisato-san and Hina-san developed some kind of secret language!" Eve suggested, bringing me back to reality. "So they could talk to each other and not reveal their locations!" She nodded, agreeing with herself. "Mhmm! Very stealthy! True warriors, ready for the battlefield!"  
  
"Ehe..." I wasn't...quite sure what to say to that, if anything, so I didn't.  
  
I guess she took my silence for an approval, because she continued on. "Maybe we could try that, too! How about we go check on Hina-san?"  
  
"Check on her?" I repeated back. "What for? We don't have any practice today."  
  
"Don't you want to know what she's really up to?" Eve wondered, reaching for one of my hands. "Maybe we could figure out her and Chisato-san's secret code!"  
  
I definitely wasn't too keen on invading Hina's personal space, especially considering we'd have to find her at her school, most likely. The weirdness of last night aside, it didn't really seem like a good idea.  
  
"Maybe we could find her another way...?" I tried to suggest. "How about inviting her to the mall? We could all go see a movie. I can tex--"  
  
"Perfect!" Eve immediately began sprinting ahead, still holding onto my hand. "Let's find her!"  
  
I didn't even have a chance to grab my phone out of my bag before I had to clumsily run behind the awkwardly hyper Eve.  
  
It didn't take us too long to reach Haneoka, but it was still a pretty extensive run. Though it probably only seemed like that because I felt like I would've lost my arm or something if I didn't keep up with Eve's pace.  
  
As soon as she let go of my hand, I slumped over, resting my hands on my thighs to catch my breath.  
  
I could see Eve's footsteps scampering about out of the corner of my eye, probably to see if she could catch Hina leaving the school. How she has this much stamina, even after that quick of a run, is astounding.  
  
When I eventually lifted myself back up to look along with Eve, I could see the rest of Haneoka's students calmly pouring out of their campus and onto the sidewalk. But much to Eve's dismay, we couldn't spot Hina amongst the crowds of teens.  
  
Maya ended up strolling by us, though. She found us before we could find her.  
  
"Eve-san?" she called out from behind us. As Eve and I turned around, Maya's face lit up at the realization. "And Aya-san, too! What are you two doing here?"  
  
Well, we couldn't just up and say we're pretty much stalking Hina. That wouldn't be--  
  
"We're looking for Hina-san!" Eve answered, jogging on over to Maya and I. "Have you seen her?"  
  
"Hina-san...?" Maya glanced around a bit in thought. "I don't think I saw her today. Maybe she stayed home?"  
  
It wasn't like Hina to skip school. At least, that was what I thought.  
  
"That's...weird," I admitted.  
  
"Should we head to her home?" Eve suggested. "She could be sick."  
  
Or we could call her and see where she's at...? That might be better than just stopping by out of the blue. What if no one's even ho--  
  
"That's a great idea!" Maya agreed, already looking very excited to be doing this. "And we could bring something over for her!"  
  
Before I could even get my objections out of my mouth, Eve and Maya were beginning to head in the direction of the mall.  
  
I followed shortly behind them, of course. While I didn't want to intrude, if there was some personal stuff going on with Hina's family, I couldn't help but be concerned about all of this.  
  
Then again, Sayo was in school today, and everything seemed as normal as could be, considering I don't know that much about her.  
  
So we began the walk through the city to get to the mall. I had no idea why we decided to walk when we could've taken literally any other method of transportation, but I wasn't really in the right place to be arguing.  
  
Eve and Maya seemed to be trying to decide what we should get Hina, so I began pondering myself so I could give an input. Hina would definitely appreciate sweets, but if she's sick, then bringing her that probably wouldn't be very good for her.  
  
Then again, it's not li--  
  
"Hey..." Maya stopped walking, gesturing to the alleyway next to us. "Did anyone else see that, or was that just me?"  
  
Eve and I glanced over, but it looked like just a regular alleyway.  
  
"What did you see?" I decided to ask. Can't deny that I'm curious, at least, but we probably shouldn't be examining random alleyways to figure this out.  
  
"I dunno!" Maya bent over a little to emphasize her peering down the alleyway. "It looked like a jumping candle." She then straightened herself back up and took a couple confused looks at Eve and I. "Am I hallucinating or something? It's not even that hot..."  
  
"A jumping candle...?" Eve repeated, probably trying to process what that could even mean. She was leaning so far into the alleyway, that one leg was in the air by reflex. There was only so far she could go with her hands still on the corner of the wall, supporting her weight.  
  
Maya was nodding along, peering back down the alleyway herself. "I know, right? How do you explain something like that?!"  
  
I gently placed a hand on Maya's shoulder. "Maybe we should get goi--"  
  
And just as I started to say that, one of those candles zipped towards us.  
  
"There it is!" Maya pointed frantically at it. "There it is! I knew I wasn't crazy!"  
  
I guess there really is a jumping candle out here...? Odd. Maybe it's a kid's toy that got loose and hasn't run out of batteries yet.  
  
...Wait a second.  
  
"Move back!" I quickly pulled Maya towards me and out of the view of the alleyway, Eve practically rolling along the wall on the other end to get out of the way.  
  
The candle bounded on out of the alleyway and propelled itself onto the sidewalk, exploding upon impact.  
  
"Wha--?!" I covered my face from the blast with my arms, but...nothing seemed to really hit me, or any of us.  
  
At least, that was what I thought. But as I stood back up straight, I could see that was exactly the case.  
  
Something was different, though. I don't know what it was, but I could definitely feel it.  
  
"What...was that, anyway?" Maya clutched her school bag with both hands, holding it close.  
  
Eve was crouching next to where the candle thing had landed, which hadn't left a mark at all. "I wonder..."  
  
But as she reached her hand out to probably touch that part of the sidewalk, it...warped.  
  
...Warped?  
  
Maya stayed standing, watching Eve while I crouched down with her to check this out.  
  
"I dunno about this, you guys..." Maya propped herself back against the wall, visibly afraid of whatever just happened.  
  
I wasn't, either, but that feeling just wouldn't go away. Something was wrong here, and I wanted to know what it was.  
  
Eve tried to poke it again, but all it did was warp and bend, like there was invisible water and she was putting her finger in it.  
  
"This is weird..." I admitted, though we all already knew that. "Maybe we should leave it alone?"  
  
But I didn't want to leave it alone. I wanted to know what this was just as much as Eve and Maya, but there was something about this that was lowkey triggering a fight or flight respo--  
  
"Guh--... Guys...?" Maya choked out a word, signaling Eve and I to look up at her.  
  
She was shakily pointing a finger at the alleyway, which had about ten other candle things staring out of it and at us.  
  
...Oh.  
  
"Let's--... Let's, uh--..." I tried to get the sentence out, but it refused to make it up my throat and out my mouth.  
  
I can't speak. This--  
  
A hand clamped onto my arm and pulled me to my feet, quickly beginning to drag me back in the direction we were originally heading. I'm pretty sure I lost the grip I had on my school bag along the way, but I couldn't bring myself to care right now.  
  
"Maya-san!" It was Eve that pulled me up, apparently, because Maya had bolted off of the wall to pick up my bag and follow us.  
  
I had to keep my eyes on the candle things. I had to. My eyes wouldn't let me look at anything else, even though running practically backwards wasn't a very good idea when you were trying to flee a scene.  
  
They were starting to jump after us, but three humans can outrun some weird toy things, ri--  
  
Eve abruptly stopped running, causing me to run into her back.  
  
"Are we-- Are we trapped?!" Maya caught up to us almost immediately, stopping next to Eve.  
  
I peeked in between the two of them. There was a brass gate directly in front of us, blocking the way.  
  
Wait. A brass gate?  
  
I turned back around. This wasn't the sidewalk anymore. Wherever we were, it wasn't supposed to be the front yard of a decaying manor.  
  
But the manor wasn't always there, either way. It was here for a couple moments, then showed the alleyway again, but quickly shifted back to the manor.  
  
No one had any words for this, but the three of us pressed ourselves against the gate, watching the candle things slowly hop over to us.  
  
Is this magic...? But it can't be! The real world doesn't have magic! That kind of thing only exists in anime and video games!  
  
But all three of us can't be hallucinating the same thing. Whatever this was, it wanted us to stay here.  
  
"Ehehe..." I couldn't help but laugh a little at this. But it wasn't in the way where I found this to be funny. "Is this...it...?"  
  
"Ay--... Aya-san..." Eve sounded just as terrified as the rest of us.  
  
This wasn't the end of everything, right...? We were gonna find a way out of this, check on Hina, and everything was going to be okay! Nothing bad is gonna happen here! Nothing can!  
  
...Right?  
  
I was holding onto the bars of the gate for dear life. These were definitely real, but it still didn't explain how they got here, or what these candle things were, or anythi--  
  
"Eh--... Eta... Eta Piscium!"  
  
A barrage of light blue stars rained down onto the candle things, causing them to screech in pain. It didn't take long for all of them to disappear in their own puffs of smoke.  
  
Once the air started to clear, we could clearly see a figure jump down from the top of the manor and down to the front yard below. They seemed to be heading towards us...?  
  
"Sorry about that," the voice echoed through the cloud. "I thought I could keep this a secret a little bit longer, y'know? Didn't wanna drag anyone into this that didn't wanna."  
  
Isn't that...?  
  
Out came Hina, right into our view. She was adorned from head to toe in magician-esque clothing, a wide grin plastered across her face.  
  
"Can you forgive me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad that this ended up being longer than the first chapter. To be honest, this one was actually refreshing to write, especially towards the beginning.


	3. I Guess It's Okay...

If we weren't speechless before, we definitely were now. Hina was treating this like it was an everyday occurrence, as calm as she possibly could be, while the rest of us looked ready to book it on out of here at a moment's notice.  
  
There were way too many questions I, at least, could ask here, but none of them actually wanted to be said. Instead, I could feel my cheeks starting to burn as my vision blurred a little.  
  
Oh, okay.  
  
I quickly hid my face in my hands to cry it out, completely unaware of anything else around us now.  
  
This all felt like some kind of dream. The weirdest part was that Hina, out of anyone, was our knight in shining armor. It was so surreal, I was beginning to think the three of us were actually hallucinating.  
  
"Uh..." Maya finally spoke up, though I didn't want to lift my head up yet to join the conversation. "What? What is this?"  
  
"I--... I...agree, Maya-san," Eve added in, then paused for a moment or two. I could hear a couple footsteps, so she probably walked over to Hina. "Hina-san, please explain what's going o--?"  
  
A sudden bout of fear coursed through me, from my calf until it reached my throat to let itself out as a sharp screech. Uncovering my face and quickly looking down to find the source of this random terror revealed...a cat?  
  
No, that's not a cat. It looked more like a squirrel. A cat and squirrel hybrid. Is that even how animals work...?  
  
Well, I definitely wasn't crying anymore.  
  
"Kyuubey, no!" Hina knelt down to pick up the creature, visibly angry with it. "Don't scare anyone!" With it in her arms, she pointed at it with a pout, like she was scolding a naughty child that just scribbled all over the walls.  
  
I could hear both Eve and Maya gasping in amazement at it. So was I, but quietly.  
  
"You know I didn't mean any harm, Hina," It spoke, somehow.  
  
It spoke. There's a talking animal here. Now we're definitely hallucinating, right? Surely we hit our heads somewhere along the way.  
  
Kyuubey turned its head to look at the three of us. "What you all saw was a group of familiars trying to make their own barrier."  
  
"A what?" I finally asked, wiping my eyes with my sleeve.  
  
"You heard me correctly," Kyuubey finally turned to me, specifically. "Those candles were familiars that had branched off from their witch."  
  
Maya was squinting. "Now you've totally lost me."  
  
"Yeah, this is still pretty new for me, too," Hina admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "I only contracted a couple days ago."  
  
"Contract?" Eve looked rather concerned. "But we already have a contract with the agency. Wouldn't another contract be breaking it?"  
  
Kyuubey slowly shook its head. "Being a magical girl isn't a job you get paid for, or something that should be told to the public, for that matter. You can tell other people, but it's not recommended."  
  
I just noticed this, but its mouth doesn't even move. Talk about creepy.  
  
"Kind of why I was waiting on telling you guys about all of this," Hina tried to explain. "I wasn't sure how yet, really. Especially after my little screw-up last night."  
  
As she spoke, the gates behind us began to slip out of view, slinking beneath us to reveal the sidewalk still being here this entire time.  
  
But the sight of it dropped Hina's grin immediately. Tossing Kyuubey onto her shoulder, she reached under her cape with her now free hands to pull out...a mace?  
  
Wait. That's a flail, I think. I'm pretty sure. I don't know. It's a spiky ball thing on a chain with a handle. I don't even recall how I know the names of either of these weapons, to be honest. Maybe Hina read them out of a dictionary to us one time.  
  
Hina kept one hand on the handle and the other on the chain, then whipped herself around to scan the area.  
  
"Stupid thing's trying to run away!" she practically shouted towards the manor, beginning to jog after the fading scenery. "C'mon! It's not gonna hurt anyone else as long as I'm here!"  
  
Before I could even consider just heading in the opposite direction and leaving this crazy mess of what I'm still pretty convinced is just a hallucination of some kind, Eve had sprinted after Hina, leaving Maya and I in her dust.  
  
We both took one look at each other—confused out of our minds, more than anything else—before lightly jogging after the two of them.  
  
Hina quickly darted to the side of the manner, with Eve very close behind her. They were so quick, the only way I could tell where either of them were was the clanking of Hina's chain from her weapon being the only other sound around us right now. Besides our footsteps, of course.  
  
But as Maya and I turned the corner, the barrier was beginning to disappear all at once, everywhere around us warping and twisting back to reality.  
  
"What in the--?!" Maya clung to my arm almost immediately, forcing both of us to stop in our tracks.  
  
Once we could see reality clearly again, Hina and Eve came back into view, along with Chisato.  
  
...Chisato?  
  
She was dressed in a different garb, too. There wasn't really anything I could compare it to on the spot other than it looked like it was a really lose fit. It looked similar to our stage outfits, though.  
  
I guess Chisato's a magical girl, too. I don't understand why I'm not really surprised by this.  
  
"I thought I told you to keep them out of this," she began to lecture, finishing her stride towards Hina. "It'll only hurt them if you drag them along to all your witch hunts. Do I make myself clear this time?"  
  
Hina's grip on her chain tightened, clanking a little. "I didn't do this," she defended herself with. "A bunch of familiars tried to get them."  
  
She threw her weapon to the ground, the whole thing disappearing as soon as it landed. "So don't try and call me out on stuff I didn't even do! I saved them! At least I can be proud of that!"  
  
Chisato's eyes widened at the rise in volume, but quickly relaxed her face again with a fist to her mouth and a clearing of her throat.  
  
"I'm...sorry," she muttered. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."  
  
Hina crossed her arms. She seemed visibly annoyed by this, even though I could only see her back from here.  
  
"You gotta have more faith in people, you know?" she tried to insist. "Just because I just contracted doesn't mean I'm gonna act all stupid with this. I know it's a serious thing!"  
  
All Chisato could figure out how to do was look down towards the cement, clearly embarrassed by her own assumptions.  
  
"But my point does still stand," Chisato removed her hand from her face and locked eyes with Hina again, "and if you ever want to take me up on the offer I gave you, you know exactly where to find me."  
  
"You make it sound like you're some old, wise sage of magical girls!" Hina tapped her heel against the ground. "Sitting on top of this huuuuuge, boppin' mountain until someone climbs up it and falls over at your feet," She dramatically holds both hands up towards the sky. "and begs for you to teach them your ways! O, great and powerful Chisato-chan, please guide me onto the path of enlightenment!"  
  
Giggling now, she finally brings herself back down to earth and de-transforms, a glittery cloud of light blue enveloping her and poofing away just as quick.  
  
She was in her school uniform, though. Maybe, if she really didn't go to school today, she's only wearing it so she could've fooled everyone else at home into thinking she was going. It wouldn't have been that hard to do, considering her sister goes to an entirely different school than her.  
  
Chisato quickly de-transformed as well, her cloud of pastel yellow revealing her school uniform. She didn't seem all that bothered by Hina's analogy, but something along those lines was just normal Hina for us. If she didn't pull something like that every once in a while, there would be something wrong.  
  
"But I get it," Hina agreed. "Could I bug you for that later tonight, maybe?"  
  
That warm grin of hers finally returning, Chisato leaned to the side a bit to get a good look at the rest of us.  
  
I mean, to be fair, we've kind of just been standing here, completely dumbfounded over this whole thing. What could we even say here?  
  
"I'm fine with it," Chisato accepted, straightening herself back out. "but I think you have some explaining to do for these three, don't you think?"  
  
"You're not gonna help me?" Hina seemed to relax a bit.  
  
Chisato giggled in response. "Nonsense! You saved them, didn't you?"  
  
Before Hina could even try to respond, Chisato twirled around on her heel and lightly waved, not making eye contact with us anymore.  
  
"You have Kyuubey with you, so have it help you answer any questions they have," Chisato added in as her hand lowered back to her side. "Other than that, I'll be around. You know how to find me."  
  
And she disappeared around a corner, as calm and collected as usual.  
  
It didn't take long until Hina turned back around to us with the widest grin.  
  
"So!" She wagged her finger back and forth at us. "Where does everyone wanna head? Café? Bakery? We're kind of closer to the mall, aren't we?"  
  
"We were...on our way to the mall," I reminded the rest of us of, "since we were gonna pick you up something before heading to your place."  
  
Hina's eyes lit up at the sound of that. "Aw, seriously?!" She couldn't believe it, I guess. "Now I wish I actually was sick and stayed home or something! You guys're the best!"  
  
"Mall it is, then?" Maya tried to verify.  
  
Eve looked a little confused by that idea, though. "Wouldn't it be bad for Kyuubey-san, then? For other people to see it?"  
  
"I beg to differ," Kyuubey disagreed. "The only humans that can see me are those I choose to potentially become magical girls. Other than those, no one else knows I even exist."  
  
"Wait a second," I instinctively raised a hand, but quickly lowered it again. "Does that mean you were there last night?"  
  
A nod came from Kyuubey. "Indeed I was."  
  
"We also had this bleeeeeh conversation about it in our heads and stuff," Hina tapped her head a couple times. "Everything's fine, though. But it probably looked pretty weird, huh?"  
  
"Honestly?" Maya decided to leave her input. "I thought you two had finally lost it." Eve nodded to that.  
  
'But it's cool, though!' Hina added, without...moving her mouth.  
  
Oh. That was in my head.  
  
Quickly looking over at Eve and Maya showed them both shocked by this, too.  
  
'You three can talk like this, too,' Kyuubey told us. 'Since you're not contracted yet, as long as I'm here, telepathic communication is always an option.'  
  
'An even more secretive way to talk in battle...' Eve looked even more starry-eyed than Hina.  
  
Maya took a step back. 'This is...crazy, but okay.'  
  
'This could let us talk in the mall about this stuff,' I realized, 'and no one would even know!'  
  
While I'm all for being recognized in public spaces, something as confidential as this wouldn't be something I'd like the world to know.  
  
Besides, what if there's other magical girls in the city besides Hina and Chisato? Would more magical girls blow the covers of other magical girls? Would they want to get together and form a big team to save the planet? Would there be a bunch of mysteries for them all to solve together?  
  
I think this is giving me a headache.  
  
'Hey, that's a great idea!' Hina turned to me. 'It'll be all top secret!' She placed a hand at her forehead and bent over a bit, as if she was trying to see far ahead. 'Hush hush!'  
  
Before any of us could agree, she straightened herself back up and began to walk back in the direction of the mall.  
  
"Well?" A couple kicks of her heels turned her around to face us again, walking backwards now. "Let's get a move on, then! It's a biiiiig story!"  
  
Of course, we naturally followed suit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This just in: Hina is an absolute whirlwind of fun to write. My god. So much of her dialogue just rolled off the top of my head.


	4. This Doesn't Seem Too Bad...

With all that just happened, I didn't even realize how close we actually were to the mall. The rest of the trip didn't take very long at all, with Hina acting like a speedy tour guide across the remainder of the city, keeping us as close to her pace as possible.  
  
As per usual, the mall was ridiculously crowded, practically wall to wall with shoppers. There were probably sales all over the place, but very few signs for them could be seen through this many people.  
  
"Soooo!" Hina had turned back around earlier, after Maya had stopped her from jogging backwards into a business's sign. "Where does everyone wanna head? Clothes shopping? Stationery? Maybe catch a movie?"  
  
Eve giggled a little. "I don't think we'd be able to focus on anything if we saw a movie..." Maya nodded to that.  
  
"How about some charms?" I suggested.  
  
Charms would've been my first choice for our original intention, anyway. I've been debating coming here by myself to get some for everyone, anyway. Even though Chisato didn't join us this time, I feel like we'd all appreciate something matching that could remind us of each other whenever we see it.  
  
"I like that!" Hina pointed a finger in the air. "I wanna do it!"  
  
Before anyone else could reply, Hina started skipping off to said store, with Kyuubey hanging onto her shoulder like this was an everyday occurrence.  
  
'I guess there really is no one else that can see the little guy,' Maya noticed, beginning to try to jog through the crowd to catch up to Hina. Eve and I followed behind her.  
  
Since the store was on the bottom floor, we reached it in no time.  
  
Hina was already towards the back, admiring the racks of charms. She seemed to be eyeing a specific section of the rack in particular.  
  
'This feels like one of those spy movies!' Hina giggled in our heads. 'On the outside, we're just trying to decide on some charms, but on the insiiiiiide...'  
  
Her smile widened. 'On the inside, we're goin' over all this magic stuff! And no one else knows! Isn't that cool?!'  
  
Maya reached Hina first. 'It's still a little weird, but it's definitely convenient.'  
  
She knelt down to look at the charms on the bottom rows, with Eve almost immediately doing the same. Both placed their school bags on the floor in front of them. With the extra room above now, I checked the top with my free hand.  
  
"Definitely a different selection than last time..." I let out into the air, since we hadn't said anything with our mouths yet since we came in here. Don't want the lady at the register to think we're crazy or something.  
  
Eve made some kind of sigh. 'This magical girl thing...'  
  
She slid a charm off of its hook. It was of a white Pomeranian, sitting with its tongue out. There was a blue flower sitting on top of its head, tucked between both ears. It looked kind of like an iris.  
  
'This magical girl thing,' she repeated. 'What does Hina-san have to do, exactly...? Besides...all of what we saw.'  
  
Kyuubey situated itself better on Hina, climbing from her shoulder to the top of her head to perch like a cat.  
  
That thing has to be part cat. What else would explain it?  
  
'Magical girls that contract with me,' it started to explain, tapping Hina's forehead with its front paw a couple times, 'like Hina here, fight witches in exchange for me granting a wish of theirs.'  
  
A wish?  
  
I began to turn my head to Hina out of reflex, but caught myself, shifting to another section of the rack instead.  
  
'So, you'll...' A charm finally caught my eye, so I reached for it. 'You'll grant anything? I wanna say that sounds pretty far-fetched, but...'  
  
Once I got the charm off its hook, I straightened myself and held it at about eye level to get a better look at it. It was a small dog—a fluffy guy with pointy ears under all the fur—with a bone in its mouth. It had a small flower crown on, with some really small and droopy white flowers weaved through.  
  
"This one looks pretty nice..." I noted, turning it on its chain a little.  
  
Maya stood back up to look at my charm after picking her bag up, holding one of her own. It was a really furry cat—the creamy color for its torso and part of its face being the only part to contrast against the brown for everywhere else— on a piece of a cat perch, staring calmly off into the unknown. There was some kind of smaller, pinker lily resting next to it.  
  
I shot Maya a thumbs up and a grin, and she returned the gesture almost immediately.  
  
'Kyuubey definitely grants wishes, though,' Hina agreed, holding up a charm into the air herself.  
  
Another fluffy dog, the little brown and black puppy was standing normally, its tail cocked to the side, in the middle of a wag. Its head was tilted upward to probably give someone the yellow daffodil it proudly had in its mouth.  
  
"How's this one?" Hina asked us with a rather triumphant-sounding huff.  
  
Eve, still searching through the rows, turned her head to Hina's charm and nodded in validation. "How cute!" she exclaimed before returning to the rack.  
  
As Hina joined Maya and I on our feet, we nodded as well.  
  
'You wished for something, then, Hina-san?' Maya pulled her phone out of her coat pocket and unlocked it, scrolling to keep herself preoccupied.  
  
Hina's gaze shifted to the charm she chose, a slight shift to a nervous grin trying to creep onto her face.  
  
'Eeyup,' she confirmed. 'Sure did! And it definitely came true, too. But, uh...' A small chuckle tried to leave her throat. 'I'm gonna keep that one to myself a little longer, alright? My bad.'  
  
Before anyone else could comment on that, Eve stood up with another charm. "How about this one for Chisato-san?"  
  
It was a brown and white bulldog, running with a purple flower crown—a mess of long petals surrounding a kind of yellow center—in its mouth.  
  
Eve giggled at the sight of it. "I think it's adorable," she added, swaying it a little by the chain.  
  
I couldn't help but laugh a little myself. It is cute! I probably would've picked that for me, if I didn't find this one first.  
  
Hina lit back up as soon as she saw it. "Oh, yeah! Please! That's perfect!"  
  
As she began her march to the register, Kyuubey turned its head to look at the rest of us.  
  
'By the way...' It closed its eyes for a few moments, then opened them again. 'You don't have to wait to contract. If you have a wish, we can do this at any time. But make sure it's a wish you're certain you'd be willing to fight to protect.'  
  
Eve nodded before picking up her bag and heading after Hina. 'Do you fight alone, Hina-san?' she wondered, stopping behind Hina in line. 'Or is there someone with you, like Chisato-san?'  
  
'Chisato-chan?' Hina repeated as Maya and I stepped over to the line as well. 'I only found out she was contracted yesterday when she chewed me out for bringing Kyuubey along.'  
  
Kyuubey readjusted itself onto Hina's shoulders again, curling around her neck.  
  
I swear, if it isn't part cat, then I don't know what is.  
  
'I would've revealed myself to everyone then, if it wasn't for Chisato's adamance against it,' it brought up, somehow sounding perfectly fine with it, despite its word choice. 'But since you five are together quite often, according to Hina, I had a feeling I'd have another chance to introduce myself properly.'  
  
Chisato was against us meeting Kyuubey? I couldn't think of why. Then again, there was no telling how long she'd been a magical girl for. She seemed to know more than Hina, at least, so it was probably safe to assume she's been in this field longer than her.  
  
As we all filed out of the store and back into the general area of the mall, we tried to scan what we could see of the other storefronts, in case there were other areas we wanted to check out.  
  
'Say, Hina-san...' Eve stopped next to Hina, but didn't turn to look her way. 'Would it be okay if I took Kyuubey-san with me for a short while?'  
  
Kyuubey immediately shifted its gaze to Eve, even though she wasn't looking at it. 'Do you have a wish, perhaps?' Its head tilted in wonder.  
  
Eve slipped the two charms she bought into her book bag, then began to rummage through it. 'I...might, so just in case?'  
  
There was a nod from Kyuubey before it casually just hopped from Hina's shoulders to Eve's, resting itself against the knitted portion of her top.  
  
Hina didn't seem to mind it, stepping forward a bit before stopping to shift her gaze to what she could see of the stores above.  
  
'In the meantime, I should prooooobably take Chisato-chan up on that offer,' she realized, sliding her phone out of her shorts pocket. 'Aya-chan, do you wanna come with?'  
  
'Eh?' My eyes instinctively widened.  
  
Why would Hina want me to go with her, though? I don't even know what this offer Chisato gave her is for! Besides, I'm not a magical girl. Wouldn't I be pulling my own weight, if this is something for magical girls?  
  
'I mean...' I shrugged. 'I don't have work today, so that's fine. But what is the offer?'  
  
'Yeah, what is it?' Maya repeated, coming closer to the rest of us. 'I've been wondering, too.'  
  
Hina shrugged as well, hers much more obvious of a gesture than mine. 'Who knows? I've got nooooo clue what she wants me to do,' she admitted, 'but it sounded like it's supposed to help. I figured it'd be good to see what all this magic stuff is like in action, though.'  
  
Eve seemed a little disappointed by that comment. 'I wish I could come along, then...' She pulled out her phone from her bag. 'I seem to have forgotten a book at school, so I was hoping I could head back for it. I need it to study tonight.'  
  
"I'm going to head home a bit early, I think," Eve stated, switching her story entirely, "to get ahead on that studying."  
  
Jogging ahead a little, she then turned around and waved rather excitedly before spinning back around to continue heading out of the mall.  
  
...Is she heading to the school or her house? Maybe that was just to cover for all the telepathy we've been doing.  
  
"Well, I'm still curious about all this," Maya mumbled, "so I'll stick around a bit longer. But where should we go?"  
  
Hina unlocked her phone and began to dial Chisato's number.  
  
"Sweet! Lemme ask Chisato-chan," she beamed, "in case she's nearby or something."  
  
With a few quick taps, Hina brought her phone to her ear and waited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost forgot Maya doesn't like dogs. Whoops.  
> Also corrected Eve's "Kyuubey-san" in the previous chapter. God, I love writing Eve. I love writing all of them, but still.


	5. But Wait a Second

Chisato, as it turned out, was kind of close by, but not close enough to where we could have comfortably walked all the way over to her. As nice as a pastry sounds right about now, CiRCLE's café didn't seem worth the walk for this time of day.  
  
We were going to meet up halfway, but Chisato insisted on joining us somewhere closer to the mall.  
  
As a result, we just stayed at the mall, waiting right outside it for Chisato to eventually arrive.  
  
Eventually was probably an understatement, though, as she showed up pretty quickly. She probably took a taxi to us, as we all assumed, but we also didn't see any around us.  
  
"I didn't keep you waiting long, did I?" Chisato asked, finishing her jog on over to us.  
  
"Not at all!" Hina gave her a thumbs up. "Pretty speedy, eh? Didn't think you were the runner type."  
  
Chisato tilted her head a bit in confusion. "Runner type...?" She shook her head. "No, no. I took a taxi most of the way. I just stopped around the corner, is all."  
  
Well, I guess we were right about the taxi part.  
  
"Did Eve-chan head home?" Chisato's eyes quickly darted around the area, probably to make sure she wasn't just seeing things.  
  
"I think so...?" Maya had been staring at her phone the entire time, her thumbs moving rapidly. I could only guess she was texting. Maybe Eve?  
  
"She took Kyuubey with her, I'm taking it," Chisato sighed. "The talk must have gone well."  
  
Hina giggled a bit. "You make it sound like I told some toddlers about where babies come from," She strolled over to Chisato to pat her on the shoulder. "C'mon! Take a load off. What did you wanna do?"  
  
"How long ago did you make your contract, exactly?" Chisato wondered, eyes shifting to Hina's left hand.  
  
Before Hina could respond, Chisato reached for that hand in particular with both of hers.  
  
"Whoa, uh..." Hina paused for a moment to think. "Two or three days ago? Why?"  
  
"Let me see your Soul Gem, then," she demanded, staring intently at the ring on Hina's hand.  
  
...A ring? Since when did Hina wear rings?  
  
It looked so similar to the one Chisato always wears. This is a magical girl thing, isn't it?  
  
Out of the teal gem on Hina's ring materialized a much larger one, shaped like a teal egg in its own, golden holder. The evening light gave the teal part a subtle shine.  
  
I could hear Maya trying to silently marvel at it next to me.  
  
Placing the gem in Chisato's now open hand, Hina looked away from the scene and out into the distance.  
  
"I feel like I'm being mothered..." Hina admitted. "Should we really be doing this in public, though?"  
  
"No," Chisato agreed, reaching into her school bag, "but we'll be heading somewhere else soon enough. I just wanted to take care of this first."  
  
She pulled out a darker gem—a black circle with a point on either end, in between embroidered with spirals—and tapped it against Hina's Soul Gem. Black clouds immediately left the teal and were absorbed into the other gem.  
  
"There," Chisato handed Hina back her Soul Gem, significantly much brighter. "Now, please don't forget to clean it often, okay? You need to collect Grief Seeds more regularly."  
  
Hina let out a, "Pssssssh..." in response.  
  
Chisato took the Grief Seed and lightly tapped it against Hina's forehead. "I'm serious," she insisted.  
  
"I mean, what's gonna happen if I don't do it often enough?" Hina wondered, finally shifting her gaze back to us. "It doesn't run out, does it?"  
  
"You'd think it wouldn't, but it does," Chisato tapped Hina's forehead again. "You don't want to try to fight a witch without any magic, do you? Punches and kicks don't work."  
  
Hina seemed to be whining now.  
  
Tapping a third time seemed to make her stop, but she still looked like she wanted to whine, lips pursed and eyes scrunched shut.  
  
"Hiiiiiina-chan," Tap tap. "We can't stand out here forever, you know."  
  
The whining returned, but Hina opened her eyes to just...stare at Chisato with a disapproving glare.  
  
"No, I will not gather Grief Seeds for you when you don't feel like hunting witches," Chisato added, finally placing the Grief Seed back in her bag. "I'm only giving you this one because I have a task for you."  
  
Hina finally relaxed her face. "That's what you wanted from me?" She almost looked surprised. "All this time?" Chisato nodded.  
  
"Then why didn't you say so?" Hina patted Chisato on the shoulder again, visibly sort of relieved. "Sure thing! Just tell me already!"  
  
Chisato cleared her throat, then turned to Maya and I.  
  
"I'm sorry, but it wouldn't be safe for you two to come along," she bowed, pausing for a moment. "There's no guarantee that either of us could protect you, if something were to go wrong in a barrier. I really hope you understand."  
  
Hina audibly gasped at such a response, taking a step back to emphasize how shocked she was.  
  
As Chisato straightened herself, Hina spoke up. "I could've sent them home, then," she noted, "if they couldn't come with us!"  
  
"I should've told you, yes," Chisato turned back to Hina, "but I also thought you were more experienced. We're not going to bring witch bait right to a witch."  
  
Witch bait. Okay. That's a liiiiiiittle terrifying to imagine.  
  
I was going to mention I'd make sure Maya got home safely, but as I started to, Maya raised a finger and turned to me.  
  
"We could go look for Eve-san," she suggested, turning her phone around to show me Eve had texted her a location, "if you want. She's not that far away."  
  
Squinting at the text in thought, I had to go over the route in my head. We've walked so much already today, I'm kind of surprised any of us want to keep going.  
  
But Eve didn't seem too far off, either way, having sent a selfie of herself at a table outside of CiRCLE. There was a single serving of their café's green tea ice cream in front of her.  
  
I eventually nodded, albeit slowly. Maya was probably just as curious as I was about what Eve wanted with Kyuubey, so maybe Eve wanted to explain that to us.  
  
Besides, she's conveniently taking the picture with her left hand. If she had one of those Soul Gem rings, like Hina and Chisato do, it'd be on her left hand, most likely.  
  
Chisato let out a soft sigh, then took Hina's hand.  
  
"Stay out of any dark alleyways or places without a lot of people, you two," she reminded us about. "And don't ta--"  
  
Hina tugged Chisato along, almost marching again. "Don't talk to strangers! Don't take any rides from people that claim they're friends of family members!" she mimicked with a slight raise of the voice. "And definitely don't do anything I wouldn't do! But if you do, then you'd better have fun!"  
  
Chisato quickly took the reins of the situation and sped up to a jog, now leading Hina towards the other end of the mall and around the corner.  
  
As soon as they were gone, Maya and I looked to each other again. She shrugged, texted a quick message, then started to head towards CiRCLE's café.  
  
I didn't really feel it in the soles of my feet until we were a couple blocks away from the mall, but it finally convinced me that we'd been on our feet for quite a while.  
  
Please, Eve. Please still be sitting at that café table. I don't know how much longer I can put off taking a breather, or not having anything to drink.  
  
...How long ago was lunch?  
  
We figured we'd keep ourselves preoccupied until we got to Eve, so we started bouncing ideas off of each other.  
  
Turns out I was right, and Maya was wondering if Eve had contracted while she was away from the rest of the group. It made the most sense, but what she could've wished for was definitely up in the air.  
  
We don't know how wishes work yet. How are we supposed to determine what someone could've wished for when we don't know anything?  
  
"Hey..." Maya lightly nudged me in the arm, pointing a ways up the sidewalk. "Isn't that Kanon-san?"  
  
I lifted my gaze to check. Sure enough, there she was, hand lightly trailing the buildings as she stumbled towards us.  
  
"What's she doing all the way over here...?" I questioned into the evening air. "Maybe she's lost."  
  
I picked up the pace to catch up to her, tapping her on the shoulder. "Kano--"  
  
Before I could even get her name out of my mouth, Kanon shrugged my hand away and looked up at me, eyes glazed over with no expression.  
  
...Was that a tattoo on her neck?  
  
Maya stopped next to me. "Kanon-san...?"  
  
Kanon didn't reply, but gave me the smallest smile and continued on her way.  
  
"Wait a second!" Maya practically jumped in front of her, arms outstretched. "Please, Kanon-san, talk to us!"  
  
I stepped over to Maya to join back in the conversation. "We're heading over to CiRCLE, if you're lost..."  
  
Without even stopping to consider a reply, Kanon swiftly ducked under Maya's arm and went back on her merry way.  
  
"That's...weird," Maya mumbled, beginning to head after Kanon ahead of me. "Maybe we should  call Chisato-san and Hina-san?"  
  
Nodding, I took out my phone and began to dial Hina's number. "Can you text Eve-chan, too? I'll tell Hina-chan."  
  
But as I put my phone to my ear to follow through with the call, I was immediately given Hina's voicemail.  
  
"I think they're in a barrier..." I assumed, taking one more glance at my screen before ending the call.  
  
Looking at Maya, she seemed to be having the same issue, removing her phone from her ear. "Do you think so? Chisato-san isn't picking up, either..."  
  
We were at a fork in the road here, weren't we?  
  
Maybe one of us could go back to the mall and look for Chisato and Hina...? Oh, but that would leave the other person alone with whatever kind of magic thing was taking Kanon somewhere. Besides, they both even warned us against separating. What if whoever ends up running off gets caught in a barrier?  
  
Or we could both wait here for a magical girl to come and investigate, but that could take more time than we probably have.  
  
"Aaaand there!" Maya tapped her phone one more time before locking it. "I already sent Eve-san our location!" she brought up, jogging in place. "I'll head back to the mall and find the others, okay?"  
  
I could feel my mouth reflexively drop open in shock. Wait, Maya--  
  
She already began to jog backwards, keeping her eyes on Kanon and I.  
  
"Please keep her safe, Aya-san!" she pleaded, turning around and bolting off in the direction we originally came from.  
  
...And I'm left with someone who won't even answer me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aya: I'd like to rest for once this evening.  
> Witch's Kisses: -exist-  
> Aya:  
> Aya: On second thought--


	6. Was That All I Could Do?

I don't know how long I followed Kanon for. Was it an hour? A few hours?  
  
Either way, it was finally starting to get dark. As the sun disappeared under the horizon, I could feel the worries in the back of my mind start to rise up to the surface.  
  
When is someone going to show up and tell me what's going on? If we're going straight to a witch, I can't protect Kanon, yet alone myself from it on my own.  
  
And aren't non-magical girls witch food? That was what I interpreted from Chisato, at least, with the comment about witch bait. If this is the work of a witch, Kanon and I could be in some serious trouble very soon.  
  
If someone doesn't show up to help soon, that is.  
  
Kanon eventually turned a corner and straight into a crowd of people, heading in the direction of one of the bridges.  
  
There were a range of ages here—elderly to familiar uniforms—shuffling along like a pack of silent zombies. Besides me walking normally, all of them seemed to be in sync.  
  
...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't creeped out by this. Is this how missing persons reports end up being filled out?  
  
Being aware of my surroundings right now is definitely going to be key here, I bet. If a barrier started to form around everyone here, though, I wonder if I could grab Kanon's arm and force her to leave...  
  
Would someone that was being lured to a witch be able to just waltz on into a barrier on their own, like the witch is opening up their barrier to let them in or something? What if I keep her out of the barrier, but she finds a way in afterwards?  
  
Oh, this is going to be hard, I bet.  
  
Now that I'm actually starting to think about this in more detail, though, there's something kind of odd about heading out this far just for a witch.  
  
Why am I starting to recognize where everyone's going...? Anyone that I can think of off the top of my head, though, would be practicing at CiRCLE right now.  
  
All except one band.  
  
I quickly unlocked my phone and began to dial Kasumi's number. Arisa would probably make more sense to call, since her family runs the pawn shop where they practice, but Kasumi was the first to come to mind.  
  
Besides, if they're practicing, then Kasumi would be the most likely to step away from her instrument and pick up the phone.  
  
"Come on, come on..." I muttered to myself, biting my thumb a little to try to ease my anxiety.  
  
Sure enough, Kasumi answered the phone almost immediately.  
  
"Aya-senpai?" she noticed, sounding very puzzled by my call. "What's up? Did you need something?"  
  
You don't know the half of it.  
  
"You could say that..." I decided to take a deep breath first. "I need you to listen carefully, okay? Can you put me on speaker?"  
  
Kasumi suddenly was softer, so I guess she was working on that. It sounded like Arisa was right next to her, probably just as confused.  
  
"Okay!" Kasumi raised her voice a bit. "You're on speaker."  
  
"This isn't easy to say," I had to admit, "but can you five please make sure all doors are locked where you are?"  
  
There were audible sounds of questioning from the other end of the line, but Arisa was just slightly louder than the rest.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Arisa picked up the phone to ask directly. "Is something coming this way? What's going on?!"  
  
I think someone briefly mentioned the topic of murderers. Not entirely sure who it was, but it might have been Rimi.  
  
"I don't know, but it's best not to take any chances right now," I tried to explain. "You're all in one place, right? At the pawn shop?"  
  
"Of course we are," Arisa verified. "Where else would we be?"  
  
That's...true. They all go to practice at the pawn shop quite often, I bet.  
  
"I'll explain everything later, but please listen to me right now," I pleaded into the phone. "You need to lock all the doors, and stay close to each other."  
  
"You'll explain this?" Arisa repeated. "For sure."  
  
"Yeah, you're really creeping us out..." Saya quietly chimed in with. "Are you sure we can't just leave and go find you? Where are you?"  
  
They can't help me with this, though. I had a feeling Kasumi, at least, would want to try to help, but I doubt Chisato would appreciate me roping more people into potentially becoming witch food.  
  
I need to make sure they know to stay safe. This isn't something I—a random high school student—should be meddling with as it is, anyway. I may not have any weapons or magic, but I can hope they listen to what I'm saying and stay put.  
  
"Just..."  
  
I couldn't get it out properly, but I needed to. This wasn't a time where I could just sit back and stay quiet. I was already out of my comfort zone by taking the initiative and calling Kasumi.  
  
"Just stay put," I pushed out with a sigh, "okay? Just stay safe."  
  
"Now you definitely sound like something's coming for us," Arisa noted with a nervous chuckle.  
  
There was a sudden clacking sound, like the phone was being yanked out of Arisa's hand.  
  
"Okay, Aya-senpai!" Kasumi confirmed. "Thanks for the heads up! But..."  
  
She paused for a second, probably getting closer to the phone.  
  
"You stay safe, too, okay?" she tacked on.  
  
...She always knew how to tug at people's heartstrings.  
  
"Of course. Thank you," I accepted, ending the call.  
  
At least they know something's around the corner. Chisato is probably going to lecture me for getting innocent people suspicious about this whole business, but I couldn't help it.  
  
I'm not going to sit back and stay quiet. Not while people I care about could be getting hurt.  
  
Just as I thought, the crowd eventually reached Ryuseido, at least fifteen individual sets of footsteps crunching against the dirt up to the front door.  
  
Now that everyone's pretty much slowed to a halt,  I can see the same kind of tattoo on a couple other people's necks. It's probably safe to assume that the rest of them have it, too.  
  
A young man about Kanon and I's height made his way to the entrance and attempted to open it. Fortunately, it wouldn't budge.  
  
Oh, thank you, Kasumi. All of you. Thank you.  
  
The man continued to try to force the door to open, though, eventually resorting to banging on it.  
  
I almost missed her, but a businesswoman began heading around the side of the building to the other door.  
  
They locked that side as well, right? Or, at least, barricaded it.  
  
I had to make sure, so I followed her.  
  
By the time I saw her again, she was trying to pry the doors open with her hands. When that didn't work, she started to kick it.  
  
This was bad. There had to be something else I could do here!  
  
Let's check the other sides of the place. As quick as I could without attracting too much attention to myself, I tiptoed around the woman to the next corner.  
  
No one from the crowd had made their way over here yet, but there also wasn't any doors on this side, so we should be okay he--  
  
...What's glowing behind that shrubbery?  
  
I couldn't help but step forward to try to see, gently leaning my body weight against the wall to find a...Grief Seed.  
  
That's...bad, right? That's probably bad.  
  
And I told those five to stay here.  
  
I immediately unlocked my phone to text Kasumi, an anxious lump already settling in my throat.  
  
Oh, god. God, I should've told them to run. They're going to get killed by a witch, and it'll be all my fault.  
  
But before I could finish the message, I saw that same shift of scenery begin beneath my feet.  
  
The same shift. The same front yard from earlier.  
  
As soon as I saw it, I jumped from the shock, dropping my phone and school bag from my grip I couldn't bring myself to try and catch them.  
  
I'm not even sure if I knew how to move anymore. This was the part where I should be screaming for everyone inside to run, or hurrying over to Kanon to make sure she didn't get caught in all of this.  
  
But even if I kept Kanon safe, I couldn't do the same for Kasumi and the others. I can't keep everyone safe.  
  
I can't even keep myself safe, though.  
  
As the barrier fully rose and enveloped us, I lost the desire to continue standing, so I fell to the ground along with my belongings. I guess I didn't want to see, either, because my vision quickly clouded with tears.  
  
The same creatures were back to haunt me, weren't they? They weren't done the first time?  
  
And now they've decided to haunt more people. They want to haunt my friends, and I can't do a thing to stop them.  
  
I'll probably die here, too. We all will. We'll all be witch food. We're a--  
  
"Aya-senpai!"  
  
I know that voice. Kasumi must be okay. That's a relief...  
  
A pair of arms reached around me from my left, pulling me into a hug.  
  
"Aya-senpai, Aya-senpai...!" Kasumi wailed into my back. "You're okay!"  
  
"Geez, give her some space!" Arisa scolded, ripping Kasumi off of me.  
  
I can't be crying at a time like this. Drying my face with my sleeve, I forced myself to stand back up and turn to them.  
  
Sure enough, it was all five of them, huddled pretty close together. Kasumi was bawling her eyes out, with Arisa holding her in place by the back of her uniform top. Rimi was clinging to Tae, who was clinging to Saya. They all looked extremely afraid.  
  
"Bad time to explain?" Arisa tilted her head to the side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, where's a Kyuubey when you need one, eh? Six frightened high schoolers, none of them contracted.  
> I was going to make this one much longer, but this is probably going to be a better place to stop the chapter than where I originally intended. Gotta keep these flowing smoothly, after all.


	7. This Can't Be Right...

Trying my best to keep an eye on Kanon in the middle of the crowd wasn't too hard, considering I could easily spot her out of a crowd from the back of her head.

What my issue was, though, was the fact that the crowd was slowly approaching the manor. Without Chisato or Hina to back us up, there was no way we could stop that many people from going inside.

But we had to do something about Kanon, at least. If a bunch of magicless high schoolers can save or even just hold back one person from becoming witch food, then I could be proud of something.

I didn't want to leave everyone else in the crowd to die. Of course I didn't. If I had the magic to do so, I'd stop all of them from stepping into the lion's den, but I don't.

Just let me be proud of one thing tonight. One small thing. That's all I ask for.

As quickly as I could in the middle of retelling whatever I knew about the situation, I tried to explain my idea to the rest of the girls: restrain Kanon long enough until help arrives. I knew we all didn't need to be doing that, but there wasn't much else we could do that wouldn't risk us getting hurt ourselves.

"We're throwing everyone else under the bus with that," Saya noted, eyebrows furrowing in disagreement. "Are you sure about this?"

Arisa nodded. "Yeah, I dunno about that one. We're already in Hell. Why make it more traumatic?"

I already knew I wasn't good at coming up with plans on the spot. When have I ever been? Did they really think I thought my phone call earlier through? I'm practically known for how poor my improvisation skills are, especially under pressure.

We all fell silent afterwards, probably trying to come up with another plan. Luckily for us, Kanon was towards the back of the group, so even if they did make it inside the manor, she'd hopefully be one of the last in.

"...A barricade?" Rimi brought up, instinctively pointing an index finger upward to indicate an idea.

Kasumi immediately lit up at it, marching in place a little.

"Rimi-rin, that's perfect! That's perfect!" she agreed to, marching in place a little to resist the urge to run over and hug her.

"Yeah, but what are we gonna use?" Arisa's hands went to her hips. "Ourselves? There's not that much here to work with."

Kasumi's hand immediately shot up. "I'll do it!" she shouted into the air, beginning to rush over to the crowd. Tae seemed about ready to do the same, eyes towards the front door as she was mumbling to herself.

But before Kasumi could get very far, Arisa quickly followed after her to pin her arms behind her back.

Almost as if it was instinctively, Saya locked an arm with Tae.

Her and Kasumi are two predictable peas in a pod, I'm taking it. Though I'm glad half of this group, at least, is trying to think of a better plan than my mess.

Arisa was definitely right, though: there wasn't really anything around here that we could use as a barricade, besides ourselves. Not to mention the crowd was getting dangerously close to the door, at this point. What time would we have to barricade the door off, anyway?

I'm starting to think it'd be safer for us to follow them in there and try to keep them away from the witch, but...I've never seen a witch. Do they all look the same, or are we going to have to play a guessing game to try to figure out what weird thing among all the other weird things here is the witch?

Before I even noticed, I had my hand in front of my face, pressing my fingers hard against my temples.

I really didn't think this would be that hard to do! In a perfect world, I would've gotten Kasumi and the others away from this barrier, and kept Kanon back. Maya would've shown up with Chisato and Hina, and everything would've been fine.

This isn't fine, though. None of this is. We're all going to die here, with Kanon probably being the first to go, if we don't do something soon.

My eyes were starting to water again, but I quickly rubbed the tears away. This wasn't the time to be a crybaby.

"What are we gonna do...?" Rimi finally spoke up, eyes frantically on the front door as well.

Even without checking to verify, I could feel everyone's eyes shift onto me. With me being the oldest out of the six of us, they probably were hoping I had a different idea that we could fall back on.

But I didn't have one. I didn't expect any of this to go wrong, even though, in the back of my mind, I probably did have that doubt forming from the start.

"I don't...know," I admitted. "I really don't. I'm sorry..."

And as my pessimism expected, the silence fell upon us. Hopefully they were trying to help me come up with a plan and weren't just mentally judging my incompetence or something.

I couldn't help but think it was the latter, though.

"Who's on their way again?" Arisa asked me, heading over to lightly tap me on the shoulder. She probably noticed I was nervous, I guess.

Or maybe she's just clarifying because she's going to take over for me. I don't know.

Please help me out, Arisa. I think I feel sick.

"Chi--..." I could feel my throat close up before I could finish.

Yup. This is bad.

Arisa didn't seem to pay it too much mind, though, nodding as if I'd given her the rest of the information. She then turned to everyone else.

"Let's follow 'em," she proposed. "Make sure no one does anything stupid. If it gets too crazy, we're heading back out. It seems safe out here, anyway."

She cocked her head towards me, staring as if to ask if that sounded like a good plan. I nodded, of course.

While I don't like the idea of her probably taking pity on me by taking over, I do appreciate the fact that Arisa's willing to help me out here. If this continued to be only up to me, I'm pretty sure I'd get us all killed.

Your senpai is not okay, Kasumi. Your senpai wants to hide under her covers and bawl her eyes out.

"Let's get going, then," Arisa commanded with a flick of her hand to the sky, swiveling around on her heel so she could begin the walk to the front door. Rimi and Kasumi soon followed, with Saya falling back to next to me.

"You okay?" she wondered, nudging my arm a little as we both began to trail after the group. "I know we don't know what's going on here, but..."

But since I'm the oldest, I should probably have my head on my shoulders a bit better, right? Go ahead and say it so I can agree with you.

Surprisingly enough, she didn't, patting me on the back a couple times as we went along.

"You don't need to say anything, but we're here to help you do this," she reassured me with. "Just because you're older than us doesn't mean you need to take on everything yourself. We're helping you, whether you like it or not."

Oh. Oh, okay. Here comes the waterworks again.

Saya's hand was rubbing my back as we went along, probably trying to calm me down.

I just can't help it. I can't understand any of this, either. Why would any of them care about me after I got them stuck in the middle of all of this? Wouldn't it make more sense to hate me?

My thoughts finally shut up for a bit at the sound of Rimi softly beginning to scream about not wanting to go inside the manor. Arisa was quickly shushing her.

Back to reality, I wiped my eyes clean of tears again and raised my head to finally get a good look at the manor itself.

It was pretty rundown, paint chipped all over to reveal how badly the wooden building had rotted. If the front porch could even hold this many people for longer than a couple minutes, I'm going to be very surprised.

By the time Rimi had resorted to clinging to Tae, the double doors of the manor began to slowly creak open, causing Rimi to squeak in fear.

This is creepy. This is creepy, and I hate it. I want to go home already, and hide in my room.

Oh, please, Maya. Please get here soon with Chisato and Hina. Please.

Kanon and the rest of the crowd began to stumble inside the manor.

From what we could see of the inside from the porch's stairs, the foyer looked just as worn as it did on the outside. I'm scared to admit that I might see a couple gaping holes in the ground, too.

But we couldn't just wait out here, and hope help gets here soon. Until it became too dangerous to continue, we had to keep watch over this.

Arisa, who was still towards the front of us, looked back for a moment to make sure we were all still here. She was, from what I could see, biting her bottom lip.

That's probably a nervous tick of hers. I'd be even more surprised if she wasn't nervous, though, so I guess it's a good thing that she's not completely numb to creepy things like this happening.

Actually, now that I think about it, I honestly thought these five weren't really bothered by all of this. I was beginning to fear that they'd seen a witch's barrier before or something.

I'm relieved to know I was wrong, but I can't help but keep my worry for the rest of this. The farther we go into this barrier, the more defenseless we're probably going to be. Considering familiars would've been enough to murder a few high school girls, a witch could kill all of us here and then some without any problem, I bet.

Oh, I need to stop worrying about all of this. Everything's going to be fine! It has to be!

As soon as Kanon's group had made it inside, we began trickling in after them, but not until Arisa had quickly pulled Kasumi's arm over to her. It was so fast, Kasumi stumbled a couple steps towards her.

"Ari--" Kasumi began, but was cut off by Arisa's shushing.

With a sigh, Arisa looked back to us again, holding her other hand in Rimi and Tae's direction.

Oh, I think I get it. She wants us all to hold onto each other so we don't get separated, I bet.

Tae, with one arm around Rimi already, reached over Rimi's head to accept Arisa's hand.

She then nudged Rimi slightly with her other hand, leading Rimi to look up at Tae tearfully.

Letting go of the hug she had Tae in, Rimi grabbed onto Tae's free hand, then reached towards Saya and I.

Saya kept her other hand at my back, probably because my emotions weren't helping me very much with this situation.

I'm going to have to thank her after all of this is done. I'd do that now, but even I can tell this isn't the best time to be starting conversations.

As soon as Saya took Rimi's hand, Arisa shifted her gaze back to the inside of the manor and began to step inside.

To be honest, the way we had ourselves set up wasn't very comfortable in terms of walking, but none of us were really in the right place to be complaining about stuff like that.

Just as I thought, though, there were large, gaping holes in the ground, as if something had fallen through the wooden floor and was never repaired. There was one in front of the stairs to the right, and a much larger one directly to our left.

As soon as she saw the one next to us, Rimi immediately froze, knees visibly wanting to buckle. I think I could hear her breathing quicken a bit.

"Rimi..." I could hear Tae mumble, worriedly keeping her eyes on Rimi. She let go of Arisa's hand to resume holding onto Rimi with both, as Rimi clung to Tae with both hands again. Arisa didn't seem too pleased by it, giving Tae and Rimi a quick glance of confusion, but didn't say anything about it as she turned back ahead.

I really wish I didn't drag all of them into this. If my screw-up caused something to happen to any of them, I don't think I'd be able to handle it very well, if at all.

Please hurry, Maya...

Rimi was shaking her head into Tae's shoulder, visibly afraid. She was probably the most scared out of all of us.

I mean, that was understandable. I didn't really take Rimi for the type to be super into places that would be the equivalent of a haunted house, anyway. Dragging her in here, especially when she can't stand stuff like this, is probably driving her mad with anxiety.

That is, if my assumption here is right.

Kasumi turned around to check on Rimi with us, signaling Arisa to do the same.

...This isn't normal? I'm starting to think this isn't something that happens often, or...ever.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was anxiety having fun with her head.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, Rimi passed out in Tae's arms, causing Tae to step back a bit and to the wood at our feet.

"Rimi-rin!" Kasumi immediately knelt down next to the two, very quickly followed by Arisa and Saya.

Yeah, I think I can safely assume that this isn't something that Rimi does.

I joined the rest of the group on the ground soon afterwards.

"Maybe we should stay here..." Tae suggested, not taking her eyes off of the top of Rimi's head. "Rimi and I. I don't know if I could carry her the rest of the way..."

Arisa's eyes widened at the idea.

"Uh, no," she rejected. "Not a chance. We're heading back outside, and waiting for help."

"But we can't leave all those people behind!" Kasumi chimed in with, nervously shaking Arisa's shoulder. "What if we split up?"

"That's an even stupider idea!" Arisa snapped with, roughly pushing Kasumi's hand off of her shoulder. "We don't know what's here! You wanna get killed?!"

"Of course not!"

"Then whaddya wanna do, huh?! We already lost the crowd! We can't be reckless here!"

Arisa was definitely right: the crowd had gone down the hole in front of the stairs as we were arguing with each other. It'd be reckless to try to find them now, especially when we didn't know where to go in the first place.

Not to mention someone would either have to carry Rimi, or leave her here in the foyer. And I highly doubt any of us would even begin to consider following through with the latter.

I didn't know what to suggest, though. I wanted to continue following Kanon, but doing so without the rest of the group or with an unconscious member would probably be suicide.

There was always the possibility of just...going after Kanon alone. I mean, this was my fault to begin with, getting Kasumi and her friends stuck here. Protecting them by keeping them as far away from the witch as possible would be the least I could do.

Besides, that's what an upperclassman does, right? Keeps watch over those younger than her? I never was very good at doing that, so I could start now.

I made up my mind. Bringing myself back to my feet, I turned away from the group and started towards the hole by the stairs.

"What are you--..." Arisa began to ask me, but stopped herself to scoff instead.

"You wanna get yourself killed, huh?" she decided to say instead. There was a hint of anxiety in her voice, but it was mostly hidden by how frustrated she was with all of this.

A pair of footsteps got up and came over to me, revealing themselves to be a very worried Kasumi.

"Wait a second, Aya-senpai..." she placed a rather shaky hand on my shoulder.

Don't try to stop me, Kasumi. Please don't. I know you naturally don't want anything bad to happen here, but I can't let Kanon get killed by this witch.

There's just no telling how long it's going to take for Chisato and Hina to get here. It'd be suicide for me to go after Kanon by myself, but it'd also be suicide for me to let her die when I could've tried to stop her from getting in harm's way.

I began to slide her hand off of me, but Kasumi took that as a sign to hug me from behind instead.

Uh, no...? This is not what should be happening right now. Please don't make me step on your foot or whack you in the chin with the top of my head.

"Let me come with you, senpai," Kasumi suggested, practically whispering it into my ear. "I'm not letting you leave without me, okay?"

Well, that's definitely not what I expected her to say.

But I can't let her do this. That'd be bringing her closer to the witch, wouldn't it? If I say yes, I'd be fully responsible if something were to happen to Kasumi. I can't be in charge of another person's safety!

...I'm surprised I didn't say that when we first got stuck here.

My head shook upon reflex. There's no way I could let her do this. If she follows me, then I can't be held responsible!

Kasumi refused to accept that answer, though, hugging me tighter.

No, please. Please don't do this to me. Senpai or not, putting your life in my hands can't end well when I don't even know how to defend myself from this place.

"Huh?!" Arisa bolted to her feet with a sharp yell, jogging over to us and trying to pull Kasumi off of me. "You're both insane, you know that?! No one's going down there!"

Kasumi didn't budge, though, her trembling hands continuing to keep me in her grasp.

"We have to do something, though--!" Kasumi insisted, an audible crack in her voice.

...Oh.

"All those people down there need help! We gotta do something!" she began to lower her head onto my shoulder with an uneven sigh. "Please, Senpai! Let me help you...!"

Were those tears coming back? I think so.

I decided to just let them flow, considering I've been holding them back ever since this barrier threw us in here.

What made Kasumi choose me, of all people, to look up to was always beyond me. I mean, what was so good about me or what I did that stood out to her? Why not look up to someone cool and collected like Yukina or Chisato, or someone that was more her speed like Hina or Kokoro? Heck, so many girls admired Kaoru, too. Why not her?

There can't be something that unique about me that told her to stick by me instead of anyone else.

"I told you..." Saya stood up and shuffled over to us, rubbing my other shoulder. "You don't need to take charge just because you're older than us. We wouldn't be so accepting of this if we didn't trust you."

Oh. Oh, god, they trust me. Am I all of their senpais? I really hope not.

"You're kidding," Arisa chuckled, clearly nervous. "You're not heading with them, are you?"

I think I saw Saya shake her head out of the corner of my eye.

"No," she answered, "but you are."

"Eh?!" Arisa shouted into the stuffy air, taking a step back. "No way! Nuh-uh! I'm staying riiiiight here, where it's safe! And you all should, too!"

"But we both know Kasumi isn't going to back out of this," Saya noted, leaning towards Kasumi's face, "is she?"

Kasumi slowly nodded, face still buried in my shoulder. I'm pretty sure she's crying a little, too.

"We still shouldn't split up, though," Arisa urged, turning back towards Tae and Rimi.

"Are you sure you can't carry her?" she wondered, walking back over to the two. "You're probably the only one here that could."

"Really?" I could hear Tae shifting her footing from behind me. "I've...never tried carrying someone bigger than a rabbit. I don't know."

Silence fell around the six of us, the only sound being what I could assume was Tae trying to see if she could actually carry Rimi.

There was a soft inhale in between all the footsteps before stopping altogether, probably because Tae was giving it a shot.

A few moments passed before Arisa and Tae sighed, almost in unison.

"I guess I can," Tae realized, sounding rather surprised by this.

Kasumi slowly let go of me and stood up straight again, allowing me to dry my eyes once more.

We both turned to Tae, who was carrying the unconscious Rimi in her arms.

"She'll...probably wake up soon, right?" I wondered.

I don't think fainting spells last for that long, anyway, but medical things aren't exactly my field of expertise. For all I know, I could be spouting nonsense.

"Yeah...?" Saya seemed to agree with me. "These usually are a couple minutes long for people, at the most. Before it starts getting serious, at least. How long has it been?"

Saya and I scanned the faces of the conscious portion of the group. No one seemed to really know how much time had passed.

"I guess we just need to hope for the best..." Kasumi sighed, spinning back around and heading for the hole.

"Aaaanyways!" she exclaimed, bending over to peek down into it. "We should probably get moving, yeah? Let's try to catch up to everyone!"

Oh, what I'd give for Maya and the others to show up right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rimi Ushigome Protection Squad? Rimi Ushigome Protection Squad.
> 
> So, I went to Anime Expo. That was a treat in itself. Aina Aiba waved in my general direction during her warmup for her concert, and I cried a little. Bless you, Aiai, and you bet I'm going to be in that crowd if you come back to AX with the rest of Roselia someday.
> 
> I also, since the last chapter, watched all of the Bandori anime from start to finish (finally) so I can confidently know if I'm portraying PoPiPa accurately. I figured it'd be best to get on that as soon as possible instead of waiting forever and a half to do so. I wanted to be sure I was describing Ryuuseido correctly, too, since it's bigger than what the game shows.
> 
> Oh, and I also tiered in the top 1000's during the Tanabata event. If I wasn't doing that, I probably would've been writing in the con lines like I originally planned on doing.
> 
> Anyways, that's what I've been up to, and why I haven't updated the fic in a while. My bad. To make up for the time I was gone, though, this chapter is longer than the previous ones. Woo!
> 
> God, I love PoPiPa. The anime made me appreciate PoPiPa so much more. I love this. I thought Kasumi would be the most natural to write, since Hina flows so well, but it's been Arisa so far. Arisa and Saya, I believe.


	8. This Definitely Isn't Right!

The six of us somehow managed to make it down the hole, even with one of us being unconscious. Passing Rimi from Tae to Saya for a little bit while one person was a good floor below the other two was difficult, but we got it done.

Below the foyer was a hallway, perhaps even bending into a spiral. The whole thing was just as broken and abandoned as everything else we'd seen so far, webs of dust trailing all the way down the sides of the splintering walls.

I'm starting to think I should be throwing the little I know about how buildings are supposed to be structured out the window.

Lucky for us, though, we apparently didn't spend too long arguing with each other before we came down, because the last couple people from the crowd were turning at the very end of the hallway.

Kasumi was the first to notice, immediately pointing at the sight of them and turning her head back to me.

"Senpai! Senpai!" she wagged her finger towards them. "Look! We didn't miss 'em!"

Before Arisa could tell her to be quiet or try to keep her from doing anything rash, Kasumi grabbed my wrist and pulled me on ahead of everyone else.

Oh, okay. It's a good thing I'm not holding anything, or else it would've dropped out of my hands by no--

...Did I leave my stuff outside of the barrier? Great. Just great.

I stumbled along after Kasumi, barely keeping my balance with her speed. Arisa was definitely yelling behind us to get back to the group, but Kasumi wasn't paying much attention to her.

Actually, yeah! Shouldn't we be sticking together?! Since we all made it down a floor, it probably wouldn't do us any good to suddenly separate from everyone!

"Kasu--... Kasumi-cha--" I tried to get her name out in a single breath, but her speed made it near impossible to.

Instead of trying to get her to slow down, I decided to go along with what she was doing. I've been running far too much today to try and argue.

Besides, what's the worst she could do? Find a familiar? Run straight to the witch?

...Actually, those are terrible outcomes. I don't like this anymore. It's too late to back out of this, though, I'm assuming, so this'll be interesting.

Interesting and just as equally terrifying, more like.

Kasumi shifted to a brisk walk as soon as we caught up to the group.

My eyes immediately fell onto Kanon, who was closer to us than I thought she'd be. Her and everyone else were still trudging along in unison, but she'd dropped towards the back of the crowd instead of staying around the middle.

Was this our chance to grab her and head back to the others? Oh, but I know they'd be angry with me if I did that. We can't just abandon everyone else, after all.

"Um, Senpai...?" Kasumi whispered in my direction, her gaze behind us.

I followed where she was looking. Was something the matter with Ri--

...Where did they all go?

"Arisa would've caught up to us by now, if anyone..." Kasumi mumbled, refusing to look away. "We didn't go too far, did we?"

We both turned around and began jogging back towards where we came, but there was no sign of Arisa, Tae, Saya, or Rimi.

"This isn't right..." I agreed, tracing my hand across the wall as we went along.

Where did they go? There has to be something here to explain this, right?! They couldn't have just disappeared!

Kasumi began calling out for the others, but no matter how far back we went or how loud she was, we didn't get a reply.

Actually, now that I think about it, we should've made it back to the hole by now, right? We didn't run too far ahead, so why is this just looping around instead?

It's like we...never had a hole to jump through to begin with.

My feet stopped on their own. I think I figured this out, and if I'm right about it, neither of us are going to like it.

"What if..." I began, turning to Kasumi. "What if this was the witch's plan all along? To separate us?"

Kasumi shot me a look of horror. It definitely was an expression I never thought I'd see from her.

"That means we're lost here, right?!" she cried, reaching for my hands. "But--... But we can't be! What about Arisa? And Saya? And O-Tae and Rimi-rin?! That means they're lost, too! We can't leave them behind!"

I don't...know what to say here.

All I could give her was a worried face to match her frightened one.

I really didn't know what to do. Should we be looking for them some more, or try to head back to Kanon's group? What if something happens to either party without us there to try to stop it?!

The only thing I wanted to do was cry. I knew I wasn't cut out for this upperclassman stuff. Why does Kasumi trust me so much when it's been mistake after mistake for me tonight?

I decided to let my eyes do their thing, warm tears beginning to stream down my face.

Someone, please relieve me of this duty of keeping track of everyone and making sure they're safe. I'm failing miserably at it. How Chisato does this I'll probably never understand.

"Wai-- Wait!" Kasumi urged, letting go of my hands to place hers on my shoulders. "Senpai! We gotta be able to do something! We gotta! The--"

There was a scream so loud, we probably could've heard it outside the manor, if we were still there.

As soon as it reached our ears, Kasumi and I exchanged glances, then sprinted back towards the direction of Kanon and the others.

I dried my eyes with my sleeve as we ran. As badly as I wanted to just cry it all out, this wasn't the time to, and I needed to accept that.

We ran as far as our legs would take us, taking note of the hallway continuing its spiral downward into what I could only assume was the manor's basement.

The farther down we went, the more decayed our surroundings became. I'm pretty sure I saw a few creatures peeking out from holes in the hallway's walls, but we didn't have the time to stop and take a look.

Eventually, there was a hole in the floor itself, ending the hallway. It didn't look like Kasumi had noticed it yet, probably running on tunnel vision to try and reach the source of the scream.

"Kasumi-chan!" I gasped, reaching for her arm and pulling her towards the wall.

If I'd been even a second later in doing so, we both would've fallen through the hole.

From here, the floor below looked like the remains of an armory, with weapons and pieces of suits of armor scattered across the floor. Kanon's group was among the wreckage, some of them picking up various weapons.

"Let's head down, Senpai," Kasumi had leaned in towards me to whisper.

Wait, what?!

"Are you sure about that?!" I questioned her with, trying my hardest to keep my voice as soft as possible. "We can't defend ourselves if they all have weapons!"

"I get that! But who else is gonna stop them?!"

"But--"

"We can! We just gotta stay positive, yeah?!"

She...did have a point, though, when it came to our attitudes towards all of this. It also felt like she was calling me out for all my negativity, but I didn't want to audibly agree with that right now.

Before I could respond to her, Kasumi had dropped down to the floor below and began to search for a weapon.

...I guess there's not much of a choice here.

Joining Kasumi on solid ground, I scanned the area myself. A majority of Kanon's group had spears or axes in their hands. Swords and maces were among the weapons that hadn't been picked up by anyone yet.

Kasumi almost immediately picked up a sword, waving it in front of her a couple times before holding it at her side.

"Are you going to get one, Senpai?" she turned to me, the fear from before still plastered across her face.

What could I possibly pick up here that I'd actually be able to use?! I don't know how to wield any kind of weapon! I mean, unless a microphone stand counted as something, since I've waved one of those around during a practice before, much to Maya's dismay.

If I treat one of these like it's the size of a microphone stand, what kind of weapon would that be? A staff?

One of the spears by us caught my eye, so I decided on that, gripping it in both hands.

"Aya-chan?"

Wait, what? Was that--

"I knew you'd make it down here, Aya-chan!" Kanon bumbled over to me with a mace, smiling unnaturally big as she spun the weapon around with her wrist. "It's not a ceremony without you!"

Her eyes were still glazed over, but the fact that she was talking to me now was probably a good thing, right?

...Right?

"Are you sure you're okay?" Kasumi stepped up.

Not with a mace in her hand. What does she plan on doing with that?!

"Of course I am!" Kanon tried to assure us with, casually swinging the weapon as she twirled a little herself. "We've all been given this amaaaazing opportunity, after all!"

"I think you've lost me," I mentioned. "Do you know where you are? Where any of us are? 'Cause it's not a good place."

Kanon seemed confused by my comment, eyebrows crinkling with a pout.

I didn't notice it until now, but the rest of her group had crowded around the three of us, each with their own weapon. No one apparently cares that we're all stuck in Hell.

But I'm starting to think these weapons aren't for defending ourselves against the witch.

"This world was never a good place!" Kanon stomped a foot to the ground. "All this lying and hurting and manipulating each other isn't how life should be! Don't you agree?! You have to agree!"

I mean, of course I agree that this world could be a bit kinder, but it's not like a random group of people stuck in a witch's barrier is going to do anything about that.

Kanon reached for my shoulder with her free hand, that unnerving, unnatural grin of hers honestly beginning to give me the chills.

"I'm glad you're here to partake in this ceremony, Aya-chan," she beamed, refusing to break eye contact with me. "We can all head to the new world together! No more hate! No more suffering! Doesn't that sound just grand?!"

"You don't...sound like yourself, Kanon-chan," I chuckled a bit. "Are you sure you know what you're doing...?"

I tried to look back towards Kasumi, who was just as confused as me.

We locked eyes for a brief moment before she stepped next to us, hesitantly beginning to try and nudge Kanon away from me.

"Even--..." Kasumi took a deep breath, then looked straight at Kanon. "Even if this world has a lotta bad stuff, and it definitely does, that doesn't make it all bad!"

Once Kasumi touched Kanon's hand, it was as if a switch was turned on. With a quick swing of the mace, a now unusually aggravated Kanon aimed straight for Kasumi's hea--

A bright purple blur had zipped in between the two of them, followed by the sound of metal clanging against the mace. Whatever this was was so fast, the wind generated by that movement made this figure's presence known.

The newcomer had just as quickly appeared before us, a purple and white shortened kimono accentuating Eve's hair, braided into some sort of design at the back of her head.

...Wait a second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aya and Kasumi, to Kanon: I came out to have a good time, and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now.
> 
> My inspiration for how this barrier looks is so all over the place, I feel like I need to refresh my memory of it, haha. Barriers are usually a mess, anyway, yeah? I think I'm fine.
> 
> Someone's finally shown up, at least! Woo!


	9. That Was Close...

Eyes locked onto Kanon's, Eve was like a statue, blocking Kanon's attack with a katana.

"Wait..." Kasumi took a step back, eyes widened. "Eve-chan?!"

She could tell it was Eve from the back of her head? Huh.

With a slight nod, Eve slowly rose to her feet, not breaking eye contact with Kanon. As soon as she was standing up straight, she snatched the mace out of Kanon's hand.

"Chisato-san!" Eve rang into the air.

Before anyone could react, down came a pillar of bright yellow, slamming into the middle of the room.

It was definitely Chisato, magical girl attire and all. She'd jammed her spear into the ground upon landing, causing barrages upon barrages of pillars to shoot up around her and pierce the floor.

"Now, Eve-chan!" she commanded, eyes still on her blade.

Eve immediately disappeared from our view, zipping around the room. It didn't take long for her to take all the other weapons and toss them away through a hole in the wall, even the ones Kasumi and I had.

"Done!" Eve exclaimed with a triumphant huff.

And with a final push of her spear, Chisato shattered the ground sending all of us down to the floor below.

Wait, what?!

No. No, this is stupid. This is stupid, dumb, super super freaky, terrifyi--

...Oh. We landed on something. It was very faintly seen, but it was a really light shade of yellow.

I guess Chisato can summon force fields. Or barriers. Would this be called a force field or a barrier? Or even a shield. God, I'm going to give myself a headache again.

Kasumi and I were on the same wavelength with this, apparently, both of us just screaming it out. We quickly latched onto each other and watched the scene unfold below us.

Chisato and Eve, hanging onto planks of wood that were left over by the floor breaking, were looking down at a stage.

It looked like a circular stage, with seating all around it. There was something in the middle of the stage that looked very similar to a music box with a ballerina on top...

But wait. That isn't a stage, is it? Is the music box the stage?

Whatever it was, it was definitely opening up, as if the box itself was getting ready to play its tune.

But out of the box flew gears and screws, aimed at the two magical girls.

Eve flung herself out of the way, whizzing on by and to the other side of the witch. The witch, on the other hand, shrunk back a little, as if it had been slashed.

Oh, hold on. Eve has a katana. Duh.

She kept going back and forth with it, slicing and slicing into the witch. It was trying its hardest to hit her with a gear, but nothing was even close to matching her speed.

This is...what it's like fighting a witch? I wonder if this is how it usually goes for Chisato.

Watching these two finally began calming me down, though it was long after Kasumi had stopped screaming. Instead, we both just watched everything play out, still clinging to each other for dear life.

Eve eventually stopped running around after she propelled herself back up to Chisato's level, handing her something.

What...is that? String? Rope?

Either way, though, Chisato took it, and threw it upward, where the object had shot itself across the bottom of the force field into an intricate, flowery pattern.

The witch screeched at the sight of it, flinging gears at it left and right.

My god. I feel like I'm going to be numb to this sort of thing by the end of the night.

But Chisato paid the witch no mind, flipping herself up onto the pattern to crouch down onto it.

Spear in hand, the pillars returned as she pointed her blade at the witch, sprouting up from the pattern.

After a quick glance at her weapons, she launched herself and the projectiles at the witch with a sharp battle cry, piercing straight through it.

The witch almost immediately disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, signaling the rest of the barrier to finally shift back to reality and disappear.

Back on solid ground, Kasumi and I finally let go of each other to get up and look around.

Sure enough, we were all still by Ryuuseido, a majority of us resting on stone or dirt. Nothing seemed to be harmed by the witch, judging by what I could see from by the warehouse.

Those affected by the witch were now spread out around the area, unconscious.

De-transforming in the middle of a jog to Kanon, Chisato immediately went to hug her close.

I couldn't help but grin at the sight. It wasn't very often that I saw Chisato in such distress over someone, if ever. I knew her and Kanon were close, though.

Though it does make me wonder if this us something that Chisato deals with on a regular basis. Not specifically with Kanon's life on the line, of course, but I'm definitely curious about everything else here.

In the meantime, Eve had picked up the Grief Seed the witch had left behind, de-transforming herself. She calmly stepped over to Chisato.

"Should we look for Hina-san?" she wondered, crouching down next to Chisato.

To be honest, yeah. Where did Hina run off to? I figured she'd be on the front lines with Chisato and Eve.

As if she knew we were thinking about her, in Hina came, already de-transformed. Behind her was Arisa, Saya, Tae, and a conscious Rimi.

Kasumi immediately noticed their arrival, bolting to her feet and rushing over to hug them all.

But before she could hug any of them, Arisa promptly smacked her upside the head.

"What were you thinking, running off like that?!" she yelled, eyes visibly watering. "We couldn't find you two anywhere...!"

Kasumi slowly stepped back a little, arms lowering.

"Arisa--" she started to respond with, but was cut off by Arisa hitting her again.

And again.

And again.

It took until Saya caught Arisa's hand and pulled it around Kasumi neck that Arisa stopped, instead deciding to use that gesture to complete a hug.

Chuckling a little, Kasumi completed the hug with a soft apology, pulling Saya into the hug as well.

This signaled Tae and Rimi to join in for a big group hug between the five of them.

My heart.

I decided to finally stand up myself, making my way over to Chisato and the others.

"That was so cool!" Hina cheered, fist pumping the air.

Eve nodded at the comment, bringing herself to her feet so she could look at Hina clearly.

"It was!" Eve agreed. "It was amazing! The true peak of bushido!"

While the two of them were giggling with each other, Chisato kept her gaze on Kanon.

I figured now would be a good time to head over to her and say thanks. I mean, she's technically saved my life twice today.

Sitting on the ground next to her, I could finally get a better view of Chisato's face—strong waves of concern, perhaps hiding fragments of guilt that she'd rather not let anyone see—and how she was practically cradling Kanon in her arms.

"Chisato-chan...?" I decided to whisper, leaning in slightly.

She gasped at the sound of my voice, her eyes shooting open and darting to me.

Oh. I guess she was lost in thought this whole time. That makes sense.

"Ah--..." she hesitantly lowered Kanon to the ground, apparently embarrassed that I'd caught her like this. "Sorry. I was just thinking. Did you need something?"

...Is she not going to lecture me for heading to a witch by myself?

"Not...really," I admitted, "but I wanted to say tha--"

"Kanon!"

My eyes immediately shifted to a disheveled Kaoru, running over to us and catching her breath with her hands on her thighs.

"Oh..." Chisato quickly stood up and turned to Kaoru.

"She's fine," she tried to reassure her with, "so don't worry. But I would take her home as soon as possible."

Kaoru seemed to not even acknowledge Chisato, kneeling down to slip Kanon into her arms before straightening her posture again.

"What...happened here?" Kaoru asked, finally taking a good look at all the people still out cold around us.

"A simple fainting spell," Chisato lied, "I'm pretty sure. I've seen it a lot lately. But it's nothing to be concerned about. Just keep an eye on her until she wakes up, okay?"

Kaoru nodded, but still looked unnaturally tense, for someone usually so carefree.

"Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye," she recited, "and where care lodges, sleep will never lie. You have my word."

She began to slowly walk back in the direction she came, but stopped shortly after she passed Chisato.

"Can I go forward when my heart is here?" she continued, perhaps a sign that she wasn't sure what to do. "Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out."

"Go home, Kaoru," Chisato calmly replied with, keeping her typical smile. "Everything'll be okay. I promise."

And, with that, Kaoru was off, strolling right on back to wherever she came from.

Off in the distance was Misaki, tank top and shorts indicating she'd hopped out of her Michelle costume and followed Kaoru. She was slowly approaching us until Kaoru started going towards her, to which she stopped to wait for Kaoru. The two exchanged a few words and worried glances at Kanon, then went on their merry way together.

I'm glad that worked out well, though. I was beginning to wonder how this whole witch thing was going to be explained to Kanon, but to be honest, I have to agree that passing it off as something else is a pretty good idea. After all, if you start talking about magic, then people are going to have a lot more questions to ask you about other things, I bet.

But is Chisato going to explain that to every single person here? No way, right? We'd be here for who knows how long, waiting for all of them to wake up.

"Oh, right," Chisato turned back to Hina and Eve, holding out her Soul Gem. "Who has the Grief Seed? There should be enough for all three of us to use it."

Eve held it up and handed it to Chisato. It was a rather ornate-looking one, with what looked kind of like a candle on the top.

Taking it with her other hand, Chisato then tapped the Grief Seed to her Soul Gem and purified it. She handed it back to Eve afterwards, who proceeded to use it on her own Soul Gem. Hina speedily got hers out and held it to the Grief Seed at the same time.

I figured it was time to speak up again, since things seemed to finally be winding down.

"So, um..." I cleared my throat, rising to my feet. "What was the deal with all the possessed people, though? The witch did that, right?"

Hina and Eve promptly turned their heads to Chisato, as if to silently let me know that they both had no clue.

Chisato nodded, taking the Grief Seed again after the other two were done using it.

"A Witch's Kiss, yes," she stated with a finger to the sky. "Witches prey on weak humans and guide them to their barriers so they can kill them."

Yeesh. I guess anyone that isn't a magical girl is pretty much a target for witches, then?

I wonder why I've never been one, but I also could just not remember anything about it. Who knows?

"That means Kanon-chan is weak...?" I tried to clarify.

Kanon isn't weak. She's many things, but definitely not weak.

"Witches can target someone with the smallest sliver of a weakness," she added on. "It doesn't matter how well off someone is, because a witch could easily take advantage of the negatives, no matter who they are."

This must be something that happens often in this field, then, if Chisato knows this much about it.

Sliding the Grief Seed into her pocket, she reached into her other one and pulled out a pink smartphone and handed it to me.

Oh, this is mine. I gladly accepted it with a thanks.

"Maya-chan has your bag," Chisato noted, "by the way. In case you were worried about that."

Maya's here, too? I was wondering where she was, considering she went off to find Chisato and Hina. I guess she stayed outside the barrier?

I turned around to look for her. Sure enough, she was sitting with her back against the warehouse wall, with all of our belongings surrounding her. She appeared to be scrolling through something on her phone.

"Maya-chan!" I called out to her, jogging over.

She perked up at the sound of my voice, lifting her head to see me.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked, quickly checking out the area herself. "Sorry I didn't head in there with them. I didn't think I'd do much good..."

That was the reason? Maya, no. You're always doing good.

"I think everyone's fine, but," I took her hands, forcing her phone to fall into her lap, "you know that's not true! You brought them here! We saved a bunch of lives!"

Maya's shoulders relaxed finally. I think a smile was starting to creep across her face.

"That's true," she acknowledged. "Chisato-san didn't even lecture me for leaving you there. I think we made the right choice!"

I nodded in agreement. Of course we made the right choice! Sure, it was scary and I was pretty sure I was going to die or get someone killed on multiple occasions, but no one got hurt! I'd say that's definitely a job well done.

Speaking of my doubts...

"Kasumi-chan!" I turned around, beaming as I headed over to her and her friends.

They'd all ended their group hug by now, and were talking something out amongst themselves.

Kasumi looked my way as I raised my hand for a high five. She lit up at the sight of the gesture, immediately completing it with a big, toothy grin.

"Arisa was the scream we heard!" she mentioned, motioning to a now beet red Arisa.

Hina bounded over to us with a giggle, casually just patting Arisa on the back. Arisa stiffened her posture at the contact.

"Yeah, that was my bad," Hina admitted. "I found 'em in the barrier, and figured I'd keep 'em away from the witch, y'know? Would've grabbed you guys, too, but I guess that was when you ran off ahead."

Hina probably came in behind them and startled them. That makes sense.

But for not even Kasumi to recognize that it was Arisa screaming probably means she doesn't usually get frightened like that, if at all. I mean, I know already that Arisa can get pretty loud, but being genuinely scared of something and audibly expressing that must not be something that happens.

"You coulda done it without sneaking around, you know," Arisa grumbled. "Anyone would be scared by someone catchin' 'em by surprise like that!"

I guess I was right.

Hina's only response was another chuckle, patting Arisa's back a few more times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chisato Shirasagi, self-proclaimed badass. Not like she's going to say that out loud, though. Hina or Eve, on the other hand, would gladly do that for her.
> 
> My god, this was fun to write. I've never been too keen on writing fight scenes, so this was a nice change, on my part. I'm glad this made me excited to work on future ones.
> 
> I feel like a lot went into how I wanted to portray Chisato's abilities in battle, while I already knew where I was going for Eve's. Since a magical girl's abilities stem from their wish (ie. Sayaka's healing, Mifuyu's illusions), I like the idea of teasing what their wishes could possibly be before actually writing them down in a chapter.
> 
> Also, Eve and Chisato work super well together. I love it. It's probably because they already work with each other for the band.
> 
> Bandmates make wonderful magical girl teams, guys.


	10. It's All So Tempting

We all went our separate ways not too long after everything calmed down. Chisato stayed behind with Arisa and the others to wait for everyone else to wake up.

Kasumi invited the rest of us for a sleepover, much to Arisa's refusal, but I just wanted to head home. It was a long, long day, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I could last another few hours of running around, if it came down to it.

Maya agreed with me on that, and was apparently the only one to do so. I guess Hina and Eve wanted to stay behind and wait for Chisato.

That was understandable, though, since they were both relatively new to the magical girl field. I'm pretty sure my suspicions about Eve contracting instead of heading back to the school were right, too.

Everyone has a lot to learn, even Maya and I. If we end up becoming magical girls someday, we need to be able to handle ourselves in situations like what just happened, I bet. We can't be screaming and clinging to each other.

...Out of the two of us, that was just me, but still.

"Say, Aya-san..." Maya tilted her head a bit towards me. "Chisato-san might be mad at us if we're walking alone in the middle of the night. Do you wanna stay over?"

"Eh?" I accidentally let slip out of my mouth.

We go to entirely different schools, though! But the distance isn't too far...

Maya immediately seemed flustered by my reaction, looking away and pushing her glasses back up.

"I mean, you don't have to, but..." she took a deep breath. "I wanted to ask you something. I figured it'd be easier with no one else around, since...y'know."

No, I don't know, but okay.

"I think it'd be fun, though!" I agreed to. "But don't we have school tomorrow?"

To be honest, I can't even remember what day it is. Today was such a blur, I've lost track of the week. Is it Friday, or is it Thursday? It might even be Tuesday. I have no idea.

"Aya-san, today's Saturday," Maya corrected me. "We don't have school on Sundays. Neither of us do."

Oh, yeah.

I followed Maya to her home, calling my family along the way. They knew it was common for me to stay out late at night, but I didn't want to worry anyone.

Up the stairs and to the front door, we calmly slipped inside after Maya unlocked the door.

Surprisingly, all the lights were off. Were we the only ones here, this late at night? Of course, I didn't know the schedule of anyone in Maya's family, so I shouldn't be judging, but it felt a little...eerie to be alone like this.

"Is no one else home?" I decided to ask.

Maya twirled around to lock the door again, shuffling her shoes off in the process. I quickly did the same.

"Everyone's out of town," she mentioned, turning back around to me as soon as she was done. "Mom wanted to take a trip, just the two of 'em, Dad thought it'd be a good idea, yada yada yada. But they'll be back before our next live, so that's good."

I nodded in understanding. We haven't planned the date for our next live yet, have we? But we have to be given some sort of warning in advance so it's not sprung on us at the last second, so everything should be fine anyway.

"Hungry?" Maya asked, stepping away from me and towards the kitchen. "There's a whole bunch of snacks and leftovers, so help yourself."

Now that I think about it, we've all been running around so much today, that we haven't had anything to eat since school. Unless I've missed something entirely, at least Maya and I have been running on pure adrenaline since school got out.

"We haven't eaten since school, have we?" I decided to clarify.

That wasn't just me, right? I didn't miss everyone else eating without me? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

"Yeah, you're right..." Maya realized after a couple seconds in thought. "I thought we were gonna get something at the mall, honestly."

So did I, but that might've just been my stomach doing the talking.

After we set our school bags on the couch, I followed Maya to her kitchen, scanning our surroundings along the way. Her home wasn't really how I'd expected it to be: rather plainly decorated, save for a few potted plants and paintings here and there. I guess that's just how her parents like things.

Maya opened her refrigerator to an array of packaged leftovers and random cooking ingredients.

We both stared at its contents for a solid minute before she turned her head to me, visibly embarrassed.

"...Convenience store?" she sheepishly asked me.

It wasn't that far of a walk, considering what we'd done today, but my feet were definitely wishing they could break off. How either of us managed to make it there and back was a mystery.

But we were back in Maya's home before we knew it, and probably with too much stuff for two high schoolers to eat before bed.

Maya opened her bedroom door first—rather hesitantly, almost as if there might be something there she didn't want people seeing—and slipped inside with a gasp, quickly closing the door behind her.

"One second!" she blurted out.

I guess I was right. Or her room was messy, and she didn't feel comfortable letting people in when it wasn't tidy.

A few minutes passed of her rummaging around her room before she opened her door again.

Yup. She definitely looked like she just speed cleaned her room, sweaty and out of breath.

She stepped out of the way so I could come in, shuffling over to her bed and falling face-first onto it.

To be honest, I could see her room being naturally messy.

Closing the door behind me, I could see a portable drum kit folded up against the wall—riddled with posters of bands, old and current—adjacent to her closet. Her desk and bed were on the opposite side of the room from the door, right in front of a set of curtains.

This is...cute. My god.

Maya had set the bag of she bought at the convenience store on top of her kotatsu table—thankfully without the blanket, in this heat—and was rolling over on her bed. I put my bag next to hers and sat down on one of her cushions.

"Y'know..." Maya finally rolled up into a sitting position, legs crossed. "What do you think about all this?"

"All this?" I repeated.

I had a feeling this would be about today's events. What else would she invite me over for? I don't think I've ever been here, yet alone in her room.

"Yeah!" she rocked side to side. "Today. Do you think you're gonna get in on it?"

"Well, it's...tempting," I admitted, bringing a finger to my lips in thought, "but I dunno."

I'm not sure if it'd be my place to become a part of something like that. Do I even have what it takes to be a magical girl, on top of being an idol...?

Then again, Chisato's had that ring on her finger for as long as I can remember. To balance something as heavy as this along with acting roles and the band is admirable.

"But doesn't it make you curious?" she wondered, hopping off of her bed and coming over to sit down across from me. "Like, what did the others wish for? What do you get out of it? What part comes with your wish, and what part just comes with the job?"

I'd be lying if I wasn't curious, but these wishes sound super personal. Besides, didn't Hina say she didn't want to tell anyone her wish yet? We shouldn't go prying.

"We'll probably figure that out ourselves, if we contract..." I chuckled a bit before reaching for my bag on the table.

Even though we've been running around for a majority of the day, I think it's only hitting me now just how hungry I am. Half of my bag of rice balls was gone before I could even realize.

Maya stuffed a rice ball wrapper back in her own bag just in time for her phone to vibrate.

Glancing down at it, she looked...confused. Was it a number she didn't know?

She picked up her phone and unlocked it, then held it to her ear.

"...Hello?" she answered, sounding just as confused as she looked.

Pausing for a moment to listen to the person on the other end, Maya's face shifted to slightly confused to extremely in an instant.

"Eh?!" she exclaimed, eyes widening. "Okusawa-san?! How'd you get my--?!"

She cut herself off to listen, mouth slightly open. Every second passing seemed to leave her more and more confused.

After a while, she nodded.

"I guess so...? Aya-san is here, too," she mentioned. "But wouldn't Chisato-san have the answers for this kind of thing? She definitely knows a lot more than Aya-san and I do about all this."

I think she wants to know more about what happened to Kanon. That...makes sense, but is it only Misaki coming?

Maya, about to add to the conversation, stopped herself. She then stared off into space for a bit, then slowly set her phone down.

"Apparently Okusawa-san's coming over?" she began to explain, weirdly in the form of a question. "With Kitazawa-san and Tsurumaki-san...?"

Without Kaoru or Kanon? Kaoru must be looking after Kanon, then.

But if this is about what happened to Kanon, then Maya's right: what could we tell them that Chisato couldn't?

We sat in that same state of confusion until the doorbell rang.

At the sound of it, Maya bolted to her feet and rushed to the front door. I followed slower after her, closing her bedroom door behind me.

By the time I caught up with her, there was Misaki in the doorway, with an overly hyper Kokoro in a headlock.

"Sorry to intrude," she brought up, clearing her throat afterwards. "May we come in?"

Hagumi was behind the two of them, frantically texting away on her phone.

Was she texting Kaoru? Probably, right? I figured one of these three, at least, would be keeping in contact with Kaoru to see how Kanon was doing, but wouldn't it make more sense for Misaki to be doing that...?

Oh, what do I know?

Maya quickly invited everyone inside, stepping back into the living room.

As soon as Kokoro had her shoes off, she dove straight for the couch, much to Misaki's dismay. Once she'd taken off her own shoes, she zipped right after Kokoro—lightly bouncing on the couch, cross-legged—to keep her in place with a hug from behind.

...How is she this energetic? Especially at a time like this. One of her bandmates was passed out with a bunch of other people, and while everyone else seems to understand how serious this situation is, she's as hyper as a kid on Christmas.

Hagumi, slipping her shoes off while keeping her gaze on her phone, then took her place next to Misaki and Kokoro.

Maya invited herself to the floor next to the couch.

I felt a little uncomfortable about taking the chair on the opposite side of the couch when Maya didn't choose anything, so I sat next to Maya on the floor.

"We really don't know much about what happened," Maya admitted. "Really. Chisato-san knows a lot more about this stuff..."

Misaki shook her head, propping her chin on top of Kokoro's head.

"Trust me. Kaoru-san was pretty hellbent on us coming here," she noted, emphasis on hellbent. "Besides, she tried calling her. Guess she didn't answer."

No answer? Chisato could still be helping everyone get back on their feet. Or she could be in another barrier, or just showing Hina and Eve the ropes. There's a lot of things she could be doing.

"But what do you two know about this?" Misaki finally asked, eyes slowly shifting around to look at Maya and I equally. "There's gotta be something you can tell us. Even if it's small."

Well, Chisato definitely wouldn't want us telling them the truth. If she managed to avoid letting Kaoru know anything about what happened, then she probably would want us to do the same.

I don't know what we could tell them that Chisato didn't already tell Kaoru, though.

A quick glance at Maya out of the corner of my eye revealed she was at just as much of a loss of words as I was, head lowered to bite at her thumbnail.

There really wasn't anythi--

"Perhaps I could be of some assistance?"

Uh.

All five of us looked around the room to try and find the source of the voice.

That was Kyuubey, wasn't it? Perfect timing.

Just as I'd suspected, Kyuubey jumped up from behind the couch, landing on Hagumi's shoulder.

The sudden contact sent her phone into her lap, arms immediately flailing as she shrieked in shock.

Kokoro, practically entranced by this unfamiliar face, wriggled out of Misaki's grip just enough to snatch Kyuubey off of Hagumi's shoulder so she could get a better look at it.

"Was that you, little guy?" she wondered, that smile of hers still as bright as ever. "What a cutie!"

Oh, Kyuubey. Where have you been? We haven't seen you since you ran off with Eve earlier.

...I haven't, at least.

Hagumi was still screaming, so Misaki kicked her foot to get her to stop.

As soon as Hagumi came back to her senses, she immediately noticed Kyuubey, leaning in to see its face.

Misaki, on the other hand, looked like she wasn't sure what to do, confused glances from the two of them to Kyuubey and back again.

She eventually brought her eyes our way.

"This is...real, right?" she wanted to clarify. "I'm not seeing things...?"

Maya and I nodded, almost in unison.

You should've seen us when we met it, Misaki. That would've been a treat.

Kyuubey squirmed out of Kokoro's hands to hop onto the table in front of us, turning to Misaki and Kokoro.

"This is definitely real, Misaki," it confirmed. "I am real. No doubt about it."

At the sound of her own name coming from Kyuubey, Misaki immediately braced herself against the couch, letting go of Kokoro in the process.

Surprisingly, Kokoro stayed on Misaki's lap, probably because she was too mesmerized by Kyuubey.

"So you're here to explain what happened to them?" Maya asked, leaning towards Kyuubey.

And with a nod, Kyuubey held up a paw.

"What your friend went through was not a fainting spell, but the influence of a witch," it explained, emphasizing its points with the wave of its paw. "A witch took advantage of your friend's weakness, and drew her to its barrier. You three saw the aftermath of it."

Kokoro rolled off of Misaki's lap and to the floor with a thud. Before any of us could ask her if she was okay, she popped back up and quickly turned to look at Kyuubey from the floor.

As a result, Misaki then allowed herself to sit cross-legged on the couch and lean towards Kyuubey, hands propped against her knees.

"You can't be serious," Misaki denied with a shake of her head. "You're saying she fainted because of some magic thing. Magic doesn't exist outside of video games and anime."

That's what I said.

"I mean..." Hagumi took it upon herself to join Kokoro on the floor, elbows on the table to allow her hands to keep her head up. "We're talking to something! Maybe the little thing's from the same place as Michelle!"

Well, that's one way you could look at this. I applaud your imagination, Hagumi.

"Actually, yeah!" Kokoro agreed, picking Kyuubey up again and holding it above her. "Do you know Michelle? We've been looking all over for her!"

As if like clockwork, Kokoro went into a convoluted set of details about Michelle, describing what she looked like and everything.

Misaki sighed at the sheer amount of work going into describing a bear costume.

I guess this is a normal thing for her to deal with, since she wears Michelle all the time. I can't even imagine that stress.

While Kokoro was going on and on about Michelle, she was leaning farther and farther back. Eventually, she was on her back, still talking.

Misaki took this as a cue to get up and take Kyuubey from Kokoro, holding the creature at her eye level with both hands. Kokoro quickly stopped talking and rolled back up to a sitting position.

"I dunno what you want, or...what you are, but this is getting freaky," she told it, lightly shaking it up and down. "Do you have a name? Where'd you come from? 'Cause you're certainly not from around here."

"My name?" Kyuubey tilted its head. "Kyuubey! And you're right about me not being from this planet."

"So...you're an alien."

"You can say that."

Misaki proceeded to squint at Kyuubey, probably silently judging it.

Hagumi and Kokoro, on the other hand, seemed to be in shock by this. Almost in unison, they both hopped to their feet.

"An alien?!" they shouted, a bit out of sync.

What else would Kyuubey have been, though? A new species from the future?

Actually...

Kyuubey nodded at their realizations. It began to swing its legs to swing itself out of Misaki's grip and onto her shoulder, but she grabbed the creature again and held it in place.

"Okay. Let's say we believe you..." she then sighed, sounding rather stressed over all of this. "Whaddya want from us?"

"I want..." Kyuubey turned its head a bit to the rest of us. "I want all of you to make contracts with me and become magical girls!"

There was a moment of silence.

Okay, a few moments of silence.

The three of them—a shocked Misaki, an excited Hagumi, and an ecstatic Kokoro—stared at Kyuubey, unsure how to go about responding to such a request.

Misaki acted first, abruptly tossing Kyuubey onto the couch.

"Eh?!" she shrieked, staring at her hands afterwards. "You've... You've gotta be kidding!"

Kyuubey paid the throw no mind, flipping off of its back and into a sitting position.

"I'm not kidding," it insisted. "In fact, you three ran into magical girls earlier, when retrieving your friend."

"Ran into--" Misaki stopped herself, gears clicking into place. "Shirasagi-san?!"

Kyuubey nodded, not even bothered by the amount of surprising facts it's telling.

"Yes," it confirmed, "Chisato Shirasagi is, indeed, a magical girl that's formed a contract with me. And a rather experienced one at that."

"Oh, yeah?" Misaki crouched down to place herself at Kyuubey's eye level. "How long has she been doing this? A few days? A couple months?"

"Six years, I believe."

"...Six years?"

"Six years."

Whoa, hold on. That long?!

I knew Chisato had been working as a magical girl for quite a while, but six years?! That means she formed a contract in junior high! How could she possibly have balanced everything—schoolwork, a social life, acting gigs—and still be able to travel around and fight witches?!

My mouth was wide open in pure shock. A brief look at Maya showed her doing the same.

This was super hard to believe, yet alone take in. Is the life of a magical girl so underground, that even someone as famous as Chisato has never had her secret identity compromised? Unless there's some shady forces in the shadows that pull the strings to prevent covers from being blown, this is just far too surreal.

Kokoro, probably taking advantage of everyone's silence to get herself back into the conversation, threw herself half onto the couch, her head landing right next to Kyuubey.

"So!" she exclaimed, rolling over so she was looking at it upside down. "That means anyone can be a magical girl, yeah? Anyone at all? 'Cause you can count me in!"

Hagumi mirrored Kokoro's actions, falling over onto the couch in pretty much the same manner.

"Me too, me too!" she cheered. "How do you sign up, Kyuubin?!"

Kyuubin...? I was beginning to wonder what nickname Hagumi was going to give Kyuubey, if any.

"Well, do either of you have a wish you'd like granted?" Kyuubey mentioned, turning around so it could hop up onto the top of the couch. "In exchange for the contract, I grant a wish of yours."

Misaki immediately stepped in between Kokoro and Hagumi, arms outstretched so they were in front of both of their faces.

"I know what you're gonna say," she looked to Hagumi, "and I definitely know what you're gonna say," she then turned her head to Kokoro. "And I say no. We're not wishing for anything until Michelle has a few words with this...thing."

...Huh. I had a feeling Hagumi and Kokoro would want to wish for something immediately, but Misaki does have a point, thankfully: they should wait on deciding on something as life-changing as this.

Good job, Misaki. Good job.

Kokoro and Hagumi both let out a groan, plopping their faces directly onto the couch cushions.

"You're right..." Kokoro muttered through the fabric before quickly lifting her face back up. "We gotta talk to Michelle about this! What if she wants to join us in this?! We can all be a big, happy magical girl team! Bringing smiles to witches!"

Oh, boy.

Hagumi bolted into a cross-legged sitting position, her smile just as big as Kokoro's unwavering one.

"That's a great idea, Kokoron!" she agreed to, smacking her hands onto the couch cushion in front of her. "If we make the witches happy, then they don't gotta hurt anyone! I love it!"

Misaki lowered her head with a rather exasperated sigh.

Yeah... Me too, Misaki. I feel your concerns from here, and I don't work with these two on the daily like you do.

After a few shakes of her head, Misaki straightened herself back up.

"You won't just go away if we take some time to think about this, right?" Misaki wondered, looking directly at Kyuubey.

"Whenever you need me, just call out for me," Kyuubey instructed with a paw in the air, "and I'll be there immediately. No matter where I am."

Misaki slowly nodded, then turned around to begin to shuffle towards the front door. She motioned for Kokoro and Hagumi to follow, who casually slipped off the couch and began to trail after. Hagumi quickly grabbed her cell phone along the way, almost forgetting it.

"Thank you, though...Yamato-san, Maruyama-san," Misaki stated with a slow wave. "For letting us in and explaining what you could."

She turned around and bowed to us, then straightened her posture again once Kokoro and Hagumi began putting their shoes back on.

"May I call you later?" Misaki asked, looking in Maya's direction. "In case there's something else we need to figure out."

Is there anything else, though...? We probably touched on everything Maya and I knew about this.

To be honest, she could be referring to when Kokoro and Hagumi inevitably make a contract. She might want to express her worries.

In that case, Misaki, please call us. Maya and I might not be the best shoulders to lean on in this situation, but we definitely wouldn't complain if you needed us.

Maya nodded, accepting Misaki's potential request.

"Of course! We're here if you need anything," she assured her with. "And we could probably get Chisato-san to help us out with whatever we can't answer."

I mean, I would hope so, since Chisato's super experienced in this field.

Misaki nodded in thanks, giving us a small grin before she turned to put her shoes on.

You know... Now that I think about it, did she even have any shoes on when we saw her at Ryuuseido?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The swimsuit Homura event is murdering me. Please send help. I've spent all my gems, and no Homu.
> 
> I finally got Sayaka, though, so that's a plus.
> 
> Hooooo... This was the "research the hell out of things again" chapter.
> 
> I went through a ton of future event stories to confirm which honorifics they used for each other. I think the only one I had to make a guess about was Maya referring to Kokoro. Tsurumaki-san makes sense, though, since Maya and Kokoro don't really interact.
> 
> I really wish we'd already seen Maya's room, at some point in the official works, but okay. More artistic liberties for me to take, then. Not like I'm complaining, though. Maybe the anime will give us that, when the next two seasons finally air? One can only hope.
> 
> Also, yo... I had no idea there were optional classes for Japanese students to take on Saturdays. Everything I could find said that was more prominent in private schools, so I'm taking that and running it into the damn ground, haha.
> 
> Misaki and co. weren't originally going to show up in this chapter, but it just...felt right. I dunno. I like how this turned out, all things considered. Kokoro and Hagumi have tumbled on into the fic earlier than I thought they would, and I love it.
> 
> I think I spent a good two hours finalizing things about Chisato while I was working on this chapter. It was already set in stone that she's a veteran magical girl, but how long she's been a magical girl was up in the air until now. I'm pleased with this result, since it let me work on a lot of other things surrounding her contracting along the way.
> 
> Also, here's an alternate title for this chapter: Misaki is never going to get rid of that migraine.
> 
> Protect Misaki Okusawa at all costs.


	11. And It Was All Worth It

Once Misaki and co. left, Maya and I went back to going through the motions to get ready for bed.

Throwing on the set of pajamas that Maya was loaning me, I was quick enough with my nighttime routine—adjusted, of course, to accommodate for what I didn't have with me—that I'd just barely noticed Kyuubey making itself comfortable on top of Maya's pillow.

To be honest, I figured it would've followed after Kokoro. She probably has a wish in mind, no matter how nonsensical it is.

Maybe it's just intrigued by us. Maya and I haven't contracted yet, or even vocalized a wish that we might want granted, yet we've seen enough today to last us a lifetime of scarring.

Does it think we're getting ready to tell it a wish? I wonder...

But I couldn't really think of a good way to ask something like that, so I sat down at the foot of Maya's bed and pulled my phone back out.

I'd definitely gotten a few texts since I last checked, though I expected that, considering how today went.

There were a few from Kasumi, assuring me everything was okay back at Ryuuseido. She even attached a few selfies of the sleepover—Poppin'Party, Eve, and Hina—for extra confirmation.

Huh... Did Chisato go home? I don't see her there. Wouldn't she want to relax with the others?

Then again, with how long she's been in this magical girl business, she probably has her own agenda that she likes to stick to every night. Breaking such a long-running habit wouldn't be on her mind, in that case.

Speaking of Chisato, there was a single text from her, verifying Kasumi's claim that everyone affected by the witch was back to normal.

I expected to see something from Hina or Eve, but I shouldn't bother them. They're having fun with Kasumi and her friends, so I'll wait until morning to see what's up with them.

Maybe everyone will want to hang out tomorrow? Having this much free time in our schedules isn't something that happens very often, so they'd probably want to enjoy that break away from practices and lessons.

Tapping my phone to my chin in thought, I pondered where we could even go.

Call it me wanting to be nosy, but I kind of wanted to see Chisato's home. There's so much about her that none of us know, even though we see her almost every day. It took until it was brought up in casual conversation for any of us to learn that she had a little sister, for starters.

I feel like Chisato has always been shrouded in mystery for us, whether she realizes it or not. Perhaps that's just how she wants people to view her, or it's because of the magical girl life that she has to keep so many things a secret.

But there shouldn't be a problem with us seeing her place, right?

I bet it's cute. Cute and sophisticated.

With a soft sigh, I locked my phone and dropped it into my lap, allowing my head to fall back a bit and rest against the edge of the bed.

As I did this, Maya walked in in her pajamas. I think she stopped in the doorway, since her footsteps disappeared.

"Tired, huh?" she noticed, closing the door behind her.

I lifted my head back to regular level to nod normally.

Who wouldn't be tired after a day like today? I feel like I'm so tired, I'm actually going to have an even harder time going to sleep.

I never understood why our bodies do that. If we're tired, we should be able to just go right to sleep, right? But it's like we catch a second wind, a third wind, and a fourth wind all at once, and we can't figure out how to get tired again, even though we're tired.

...Wow, I'm tired. I never ramble to myself like this when I'm awake.

"I'd be surprised if you weren't," Maya admitted as she plopped herself down next to me on the floor. "Today's been pretty wild. I feel like I'm gonna sleep straight through 'till the afternoon, at this rate."

Boy... I know, right?

"If I can get to sleep sometime before three in the morning," I noted, "I think I'll be okay. But..."

My eyes shifted to look at Maya. She clearly just washed her hair, towel around her neck and hair still pretty damp.

She looked like she needed more sleep. Do you sleep enough on a regular basis, Maya? Do I need to start sleeping over more often so I can make sure you go to sleep at a decent hour every night? I don't care if we don't go to the same school.

"Do you...even wanna go to sleep?" I wondered. "I don't know about you, but I'm not really feeling it yet."

Maya seemed a bit confused by that for a few moments, eyebrows crinkled by reflex.

"Yeah?" she eventually said, but quickly took it back with a rapid hand wave that crumpled into a fist pressed against her mouth.

"I mean... Yeah, I'm...not really all that ready for bed, either," she clarified, visibly embarrassed by her own words. "Probably because I've been thinking about a lot of stuff. My brain won't calm down long enough to let me sleep, y'know?"

Could she be thinking about a wish...?

Maybe Kyuubey's still here because it can sense one of us might want to contract soon.

Or it's just tired. It's asleep on Maya's pillow, from what I can tell from here. Can it even get tired, or is it just pretending?

Eugh. Too much thinking right now.

"It's just..." Maya took a deep sigh. "It's all been...bugging me. Today and stuff. I don't like not being able to do much besides run and go get people that can..."

The look in her eyes hurt me. I could tell she'd been thinking about this pretty hard, even though all of this only happened within the span of a few hours.

"But we still did good," I tried to reassure her, "for a couple of clueless high schoolers. We didn't know what we were getting into until it was over."

I wanted to reach for her hands, but I stopped myself, hesitantly holding one out at my eye level instead.

"Without us, people would've died. Yeah, it's scary to think, but it's even scarier to think of what would've happened if we weren't there."

I don't know if I even want to imagine what would've happened. If we didn't happen to be walking down that sidewalk while Kanon was, there was no telling what could've happened. Not to mention all the harm that could've come to Kasumi and her friends, with the barrier forming right where they were.

Now, that definitely hurts to think about. I knew it would. Why did I do that?

"But what if we can't find Chisato-san? Or Hina-san or Eve-san?" Maya noted, visibly worried. "What if it's just us again? I don't wanna let anyone get hurt, if I can stop it..."

She was tearing up at the thought of it, wiping her eyes with her sleeves almost immediately.

"I don't think I'd be able to handle it if...if one of us got hurt, and I couldn't do anything to help. Like... What if something happened to you or...or Toyama-san today? And no one could get there in time?"

Thinking about something like that was definitely not the first thing on my mind, but it crossed it a couple times as Kasumi and I were running around in the barrier.

If something had happened to Kasumi, I know I wouldn't be able to hold myself together. I know she relies on me for a lot of things, and I need to respect her wishes with that and hold up my end of the bargain.

But if something had happened to me... I don't know. I really don't. I know Kasumi wouldn't be too thrilled if her senpai suddenly couldn't do anything to help her out, but...

I guess we should just be glad that nothing bad happened to anyone today.

This felt like a better moment to take Maya's hands, so I reached for her nearest one and clasped it in between both of mine, turning a bit towards her so my posture wasn't awkward.

"We would've had to think about that when the time came, then," I admitted, as much as I didn't want to. "But we are lucky we didn't have to resort to anything too dangerous."

Come on, Maya. Smile for me. Join me in these smiling times.

"Wanting to help more is normal. I get that. But we did everything we could've in the spur of the moment."

Maya...didn't seem too accepting of my response, but I think I saw a small grin trying to break free.

It didn't take long for her, though, to release her hand from my grip and stand up, calmly facing the bed.

And here came Kyuubey, almost immediately pulling itself up off of Maya's pillow and trotting over to the edge of the bed we were at.

"Did you sense I had something in mind?" Maya wondered, keeping that grin.

Kyuubey nodded a little, sitting down.

"With all that happened today," Kyuubey mentioned, "one of you was bound to, at least, have a wish you were contemplating. It's only natural to want to help your friends in their times of need, after all."

Knew it.

"If you have a wish, though, I'm definitely all ears."

Maya took a couple more steps back before dropping the grin altogether, eyebrows furrowing as she locked eyes with the creature.

"I wanna..." she began, but stopped herself.

She then quickly shuffled over to Kyuubey and whispered something in its ear before heading back to her spot.

Is she embarrassed by her wish? That's okay. If she doesn't want me to know it, then I'm not going to pry.

Kyuubey nodded again, extending those appendages at the ends of its ears towards Maya.

"That is your wish?" it decided to clarify, that face still as unnerving as could be.

Maya nodded, completely holding her ground.

I don't know. Maybe people don't usually whisper their wishes to it?

Well, whatever she's choosing, I'm supporting her. No matter what it is. Having a wish to grant means you have a reason to fight witches, after all.

There was a moment of silence between the two before Maya clutched her chest in what I could only assume was shock.

I quickly got myself to my feet. That honestly looked like it hurt!

So, is she okay? Is this supposed to happen?! It better be, or there's going to be a problem here, Kyuubey!

My suspicions just as quickly proved themselves to be just me worrying too much, a mint-colored egg shape rising out of Maya's chest.

"The contract is complete!" Kyuubey declared, still not moving an inch from its spot.

Maya's balance began to slip, but she grabbed the new object anyway.

Soon enough, she landed in a sitting position on the floor.

"Agh!" she whined. "Ow..."

She opened her hand, though, to see what it was she picked up.

The sight of it lit her face up immediately.

"Aya-san!" she beamed, holding it up for me to see. "Aya-san, look!"

Oh, it's a Soul Gem.

That's how those things are made? I never would've guessed.

I crawled over to Maya to get a closer look at it.

To be honest, the mint complimented the gold quite nicely. I guess all Soul Gems have the gold part? Huh.

A flower, of some sort, was at the top and bottom of the gold portion. It kind of looked like our band symbol.

Now that I...think about it, the others kind of have something similar, I think. Even Chisato.

Heh. There's probably an explanation for that. Maybe I should ask Chisato later.

"It's so pretty..." I softly mentioned, eyes fixated on the Soul Gem.

You know, if our magical girl colors are all going to be this similar to our band colors, then maybe we really were all destined to meet. That's what I think, at least.

"I know, right?!" Maya agreed, running a finger gently across the Soul Gem.

She then stood up and held her hand out to me to help me back to my feet. I accepted it.

"Huhehe..." she giggled, a massive grin creeping over. "Is it bad that I wanna try this out? Like...go out and jump across buildings or something? Not even fight anything, just...have some fun with it."

I couldn't help but giggle as well. She's so excited about this! I couldn't be happier for her.

My eyes automatically tried to find Kyuubey again. Perhaps it could tell us if this would be a good idea or not.

Weirdly enough, though, it was gone. Huh.

Maybe it was off to grant whatever wish Kokoro had.

"Just like in an anime?" I brought up.

Maya quickly nodded, even more excited about the idea.

What are you waiting for, Maya? Go and have fun!

"But how do you use this thing...?" she then wondered, confused eyes locked on the Soul Gem. "I hope I don't have to shout something. That'd suck."

"Maybe you just have to think about wanting to transform?" I suggested.

Oh, geez. If we have to shout something, I'm going to cry all over again. As long as it's not something super embarrassing, though, I'll probably be fine...

Maya slowly nodded, completely concentrated on the gem with a squint.

Sure enough, the Soul Gem began to shine, creating a flash of minty sparkles in the room.

We were both blinded by the sudden light, shielding our eyes.

Good thing Maya's curtains are closed, I guess.

Once the sparkles faded away, I opened my eyes again.

Maya, in a full-blown steampunk-esque maid outfit, was staring at her hands in pure admiration.

Perfect. I love it.

"Huhe...Huhehe!" she hopped a little in place, unable to contain her excitement. "Huhehe! Amazing!"

She pulled on the edges of the skirt, swaying a bit.

"This woulda looked better as shorts, in my opinion, but whatever, right? It's still pretty nice!"

I mean, at least it's not to her ankles. How anyone could avoid tripping when their skirts or dresses are super long is beyond me.

Those are definitely people to fear, though. They're unstoppable, and I'm happy for them. They're living their wildest dreams.

Maya jogged over to her curtains and threw them open with one swift motion, revealing a glass sliding door separating her room from a balcony. She then opened the door before turning back around to me.

"Come on!" she motioned me over with her free hand. "It'll be fun!"

...Wait. Me? Jumping rooftops, too? But what if I trip?!

"I dunno, Maya-chan..." I hesitantly stepped over to her, even though I really didn't want to come along. "I don't wanna slow you down."

Unless you're carrying me, I can pretty much guarantee I will fall. These daredevil stunts are more suited for Hina or Eve than me.

"Nonsense!" Maya denied with a shake of her head. "I'll carry you, then. How about that?"

Please do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me 11 chapters to use a huhehe? I'm ashamed.
> 
> This is what last chapter was going to be, if HaroHapi didn't roll on in.
> 
> I'm not really bothered by that, though. Maya's like a kid in a candy store with this. Maya Yamato appreciation squad.
> 
> Future event stories really helped me out with this wish. Which ones...I forget. I think it was the winter sports one, for sure.
> 
> Actually, winter sports and...White Beginnings Maya.
> 
> I don't know. I don't have White Beginnings Aya (which my gems sob over every time the powerful type gacha comes back), but I have everyone else. Their stories and how they came to where they are now just hits me in all the right ways.
> 
> I also spent 2 hours one night figuring out if Maya would use Kasumi-san or Toyama-san. That was fun. It also helped with the theory I had on the ages of everyone in PasPare, so there's that. Most of those two hours were probably spent researching Finland's education system, lmao.


	12. But I Don't Get It...

With a piggyback ride out of the way, Maya hopped up onto her balcony's railing with ease. To even stand on something this narrow was impressive in itself, especially with boots on. How was she doing this?

I, for one, was terrified. It wasn't like I had a fear of heights or something, but these were roofs we were going to be running around on.

What if we were too loud on one of them, and someone looked out their window to find a couple of girls sprinting across their roof? They'd call the police on us! Maya Yamato and Aya Maruyama from Pastel*Palettes, disturbing the peace! It'd be terrible for our public image!

We could...run away if someone happened to recognize us, right? Or if they caught us? I don't think either of us would know how to explain this if it went viral...

But I definitely didn't have the time to complain, now that we were literally right about to do this. If I really wanted to object, I wouldn't have said yes in the first place.

Come on, Aya... Don't be a chicken. That would be humiliating.

Arms around Maya's neck for support, I'm honestly afraid I'm going to accidentally choke her or something. She hasn't said anything about it yet, though, so I guess I'm fine like this...?

Or maybe I'm not holding on tight enough, and as soon as Maya starts going to the first roof, I'm going to slip right off.

Don't fall. Oh, please don't fall. Now I'm even more scared! Good job, Aya. Good job.

Maya slowly turned her head to scan our surroundings, though all we could really see at this level was other people's balconies.

I mean, it definitely gives someone a good view of the plants their neighbors have on their balconies, if any. Does anyone need any gardening tips?

Heh... I'm kidding, I swear. Definitely not trying to ignore what we're about to be doing.

But our height didn't stop Maya from launching up off of the balcony and onto the roof across the way, after guaranteeing the lights weren't going to randomly turn on and catch us in the act.

Please don't fall, please don't fall, please don't fall, please do--

Oh, good. We made it, Maya's boots landing on the rooftop with a soft clink.

As soon as she caught her footing again, she took another look around the area—a field of roof shingles before hitting the taller buildings, a bit farther off in the distance—with a rather pleased sigh.

"Whoa..." she whispered into the nighttime air. "Huhe. This is cool!"

She began carefully stepping across the shingles, the balls of her feet lightly tapping onto the material before her heels were allowed to make contact.

"I didn't think this'd be so easy! Huhehe! But it is!"

And as her confidence slowly rose, so did her pace quicken, eventually turning tiptoeing into a light jog, then into a mad dash for the next roof.

Um, shouldn't we be more quiet, though?! It's the middle of the night! What would we tell someone, if they found us on their roof?!

Maya! Think of the consequences! Maya, please! Someone could seriously catch us here, if we're too loud!

As much as I didn't want to be the party pooper, especially when she was this happy to be doing this, I had to tell her to calm down a bit. I didn't want her risking her new identity for a night of pretending we were daredevils.

But as I leaned in to try and whisper it in her ear, Maya took off from that roof and just as easily landed on the next.

My god. Oh, my god.

Is this how Misaki feels when she follows through with Kokoro's ideas? This is probably how Misaki feels. I wish she'd have taught me her ways of patience before she left, though, because I honestly feel like I'm going to be sick from all of this anxiety.

My face instinctively buried itself into Maya's shoulder out of fear, arms clinging to themselves even tighter. I'm afraid I'm going to dig my nails into my arms, at this rate, even through these pajama sleeves.

Yeah, wait a second! I'm still in my pajamas! I'm roofhopping in pajamas! Oh, this is something straight out of an anime...

Now I'm definitely embarrassed. Aya Maruyama, spotted on some random person's roof in the middle of the night! And in her pajamas, too! And what is Maya Yamato wearing? Are the two of them heading to a costume party?! But that doesn't explain being on the roof!

Don't get sick from all this worrying, though...

I wanted to get off and head back to Maya's room, but to be honest, I know Maya's having a good time. If she's happy with this wish and what she's doing, then I should be happy along with her, even though I'm starting to feel like the anxiety is going to make me throw up.

When I looked back over her shoulder, she was skidding to a halt towards the middle of one of the roofs.

"Huh..." she sighed, crouching down to let me off. "Roselia practices this late into the night? How does Minato-san get any sleep...?"

Roselia? What time even is it? CiRCLE is probably closing soon.

Holding onto Maya's shoulder for support, I carefully tiptoed to the side of her to see where we were.

Sure enough, we were across the street from the live house, hopefully hidden just enough by the night for no one to see two random high school girls standing on a roof.

Roselia was right outside its doors, talking amongst the five of them.

Yeah... When would any of them get any sleep? I know Roselia is pretty strict with how often they practice, but when you account for homework and sleep, when does any of that come into play?

We were too far to eavesdrop on their conversation, but from what could be made out, it just seemed like they were getting ready to call it quits for the night.

Rinko was yawning, covering her mouth with her hand to try and hide it. Ako, noticing how sleepy her friend was, lightly pat her on the back a couple times with an understanding smile. She said something, to which Rinko then slowly nodded.

Lisa seemed to be proud about something, exclaiming some unintelligible pep talk to the rest of the group.

At least, I'm assuming it's a pep talk. Lisa's already the kind of person that would keep everyone in high spirits. She probably does that for Roselia, too. I wouldn't be surprised if this was some sort of congratulations for a good practice session.

Whatever Lisa was saying, Yukina was nodding along with her. I couldn't tell if she was saying anything, though, since all I could see of her was her back.

Sayo was glued to her phone, but she was nodding as well, adding in her two cents every now and then. I guess she's focusing on texting someone?

"Oh, Aya-san," Maya whispered, poking me in the arm. "Isn't that Hina-san over there?"

What? Hina? Wasn't she with Eve and the others...?

Maya pointed to the left side of CiRCLE's building.

And there Hina was, barely peeking out from behind the wall to see the group. She seemed really determined, based on her expression—eyebrows furrowed to match pursed lips—and how sneaky she was trying to be.

That's cute... She wants to see her sister, probably. Maybe she wants to walk home with her? Even though she was at a sleepover.

Maybe she wants to bring Sayo to the sleepover! Sayo would probably reject that idea, but I guess it was worth a try, if that was what Hina was planning on doing.

As Lisa and Yukina headed off in their own direction, Ako and Rinko waved to go in the opposite. Ako could be heard from all the way over here, triumphantly yelling something about the game her and Rinko play. Rinko was nodding to her comments, a small grin accompanying her acceptance.

Sayo, on the other hand, stayed where she was, waving to the other four while keeping her eyes on the text she was making.

Must be a really important text.

Hina waited a few moments before slipping out from behind the wall, waving at her sister with a big grin and a loud declaration of her name.

Sayo looked up from her phone in surprise, then shifted to subtle anger. She was probably startled by Hina suddenly showing up like that, yet alone at that volume.

Whatever Hina wanted, she seemed pretty set on getting it, giving her sister puppy dog eyes. When she finished her little speech, she tacked on a pout as she began to slowly inch closer to Sayo.

There was a couple moments of silence between the two of them as they stared each other down, with Hina getting closer and closer until she was literally touching cheeks with Sayo. As soon as Hina made contact, Sayo slumped her head, possibly in a sigh. Hina immediately perked up and took her sister's hand, skipping off in the same direction as Ako and Rinko.

Well, I guess they're not heading back to the sleepover. That's in the direction of their home, isn't it?

Hina wanted to walk home with her sister, though. Coming from a big sister's perspective, that's actually really adorable. I don't know if Sayo would think the same way about it, but--

...Was that a sneeze? But there wasn't anyone else out here besides Maya and I now. Who could've possibly sneezed?

Maya seemed to hear it as well, joining me in looking around the area. Was there someone here that we didn't see? It didn't seem like it before, but there was no telling who could be hiding out here right now.

"Oh..." she whispered to me, pointing to where Hina was originally hiding.

It was...Lisa. Lisa and Tomoe. The two had just stepped out from behind the wall.

Tomoe sniffled, briefly rubbing her nose. I guess she was the one that sneezed.

With a rather stern expression, Tomoe said something to Lisa, who was still looking in the direction Hina and Sayo had just gone.

Wait... What?

They seemed to be having a pretty serious conversation, though, whatever it was. Lisa was clearly in thought, but they were both talking too soft to be able to make anything out.

Whatever they were talking about, though, Lisa refused to look away from her supposed post.

Okay, now I'm definitely confused. Didn't Lisa just leave with Yukina a bit ago...? If Lisa's here, where's Yukina? And why is Tomoe here instead of Yukina? Why is Tomoe here at all? Why are either of them, if Lisa just went in the opposite direction?!

I looked at Maya for a brief moment to confirm I wasn't seeing things. Sure enough, she was just as confused as I was, eyes squinting at the two of them.

"Um...!" Maya inched forward a bit, raising her voice. "Imai-san! Udagawa-san!"

As soon as Maya spoke, Lisa and Tomoe snapped their gazes to us in shock.

Uh--

Tomoe quickly raised one of her hands towards us, a faint pink glow shining from one of her fingers before they both--

...

Before they both disappeared in a flash.

"Udagawa-san?!" Maya repeated, her footing shifting just enough—possibly with the desire to run after them to blame—to lose her balance and begin to slip off the roof.

No, no, no--

It took me a couple seconds to even realize that was happening, but as soon as the situation clicked in my head, I dashed to the edge of the roof to the best of my ability.

There definitely wasn't much I could do, being barefoot on a roof, but I couldn't let Maya fall! I don't know if she can fly or float down with her magic, but I wasn't about to chance it!

But as I was bending over to try and catch Maya, a bright yellow streak caught her and carried her back onto the roof in a matter of seconds.

...Oh, okay.

Maya, clutching her chest from the adrenaline rush, slowly looked to her savior.

"Tha--... Thank you, uh..." she breathed heavily, eventually seeing who it was that helped her and audibly gasping at the realization.

"What are you two doing out here?" Chisato began to scold us, arms crossed. "And on a roof, no less. Didn't I say to stay home and lock your doors?"

I don't think she's even noticed that Maya's contracted yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a lot of research and planning done while I was writing this chapter. And I mean a lot.
> 
> Even though there's a few gaps in who would be using which honorific for who, I think I'm getting better at the guessing game for the ones that aren't known. At least I didn't have to spend two hours to figure out if Maya would say Yukina-san or Minato-san, haha.
> 
> But what could Lisa and Tomoe be up to...? Where did you come from, Tomoe? And why is Lisa suddenly with you, even though she just left with Yukina?
> 
> Heh. I love speculating.
> 
> This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer, but that transition refused to flow, so that'll just be the next chapter. No big deal.


	13. Can We Really Be Sure?

Chisato lectured us the entire way back to Maya's home.

Of course, she made us get off the roof and walk on actual solid ground. She said we shouldn't be taking this magical girl thing for granted and going on a joyride with our powers, as exciting as they may be.

I still didn't have any shoes, but I wasn't about to make Maya carry me again, especially after Chisato had her de-transform along with her. I'll just have to keep my eyes on the road ahead of us to watch out for anything hazardous.

At least Maya's joined me in the barefoot pajamas look. Now it doesn't feel as awkward, with both of us trying to not step on glass.

Chisato did have a point, though, that we shouldn't be reckless with what we do, but what was I supposed to say? Maya was happy about what she was doing. Was I supposed to crush that happiness? I'm sorry, but I can't do that.

I didn't want to block out what Chisato was telling us, but to be honest, I just couldn't stop thinking about what we just saw.

Why were Lisa and Tomoe there, even though Lisa had just gone in the complete opposite direction? And why were they watching Hina and Sayo so intently?

Tomoe's hand started glowing. Did she have a Soul Gem ring on her finger? Was she using magic? Was Tomoe a magical girl?!

Maybe Lisa is, too, since she didn't seem to really mind the fact that Tomoe just randomly started using magic in front of her.

Then again, that whole thing went by pretty fast. Who knows what Lisa knows? Because it's definitely not me, that's for sure.

When we arrived at Maya's front door, Maya reflexively reached into her pockets for her key, though to no avail.

"Oh, shoot..." she scoffed, frantically rummaging through her pajama pants. "I didn't grab my key before we headed out."

I mean, I don't think either of us thought Chisato was going to catch us. Maya probably figured we'd hop back in from her balcony.

"Let me help," Chisato insisted, raising her hand to look at her Soul Gem ring.

And as if like clockwork, Chisato jogged away from us and quickly transformed again, zipping off into the night air.

...Is she going to open the door for us, or is she leaving to make us figure this out ourselves?

Chisato, please. If you didn't make us head back from the streets, we would've gotten back inside just fine. You better not be abandoning us now.

A couple minutes went by, with Maya and I looking like fools in pajamas on her front steps. Every moment that passed in silence made this more and more awkward to just stand here.

Should we...be heading over to the balcony ourselves? Did Chisato actually ditch us?

I don't know about this. I don't want to doubt Chisato, of course, but I don't really like the idea of standing out here in pajamas for much longer. That is definitely not a picture I want to see floating around social media.

...There's no one even around here right now. I'm way too paranoid for someone that's this tired.

Sure enough, eventually there came a click from the other side of the door, followed by a turn of the doorknob. And there was Chisato, already de-transformed with that typical smile of hers.

I'm sorry for doubting you, Chisato.

Maya and I stepped inside, Maya locking the door again behind us.

"I didn't take too long, did I?" Chisato wondered, eyes darting back and forth between the two of us. "I almost forgot which balcony was the right one, to be honest with you."

We both shook our heads.

After a day like today, Maya's floor felt especially comfy. Just resting my head in my arms against the foot of her bed felt like a cloud right now.

Chisato invited herself onto the bed and propped herself against the wall, facing Maya's desk. Maya took her desk chair and sat backwards in it so she could still look at Chisato and I.

"Before you say anything, Maya-chan," Chisato began with a finger in the air, "I'm proud of you. If you have something you want to fight for, then I'm supporting you the best I can."

Maya, visibly shocked by this, immediately hid her flushing face in her hands. I could almost swear I heard muffled giggles from her.

She eventually showed us her face again, resting her chin in her palms on the top of the chair.

"Thank you..." she sighed with a soft smile. "Really. After today, I just..."

"You wanted to help?" Chisato guessed.

Maya slowly nodded at that, the grin fading away. She's probably thinking about what she told me earlier, I can only assume...

"Well, I definitely can't be angry at that," Chisato admitted, "if you feel like that's good enough of a reason to put your life on the line. Everyone has their own reasons, though, so I shouldn't be trying to find faults anyway."

This is a pretty big risk, after all, so I can't argue with that, either. None of us could've predicted a day like today.

Chisato readjusted her sitting position, placing herself cross-legged instead. Her gaze calmly shifted back and forth between Maya and I.

"I was going to just accompany you two home and head back out, but something tells me you both probably have some questions for me."

Oh, you bet we do.

Where would we even begin, though? Her experience in this field? How she balances something this dangerous along with the band and the acting roles she gets? How we've never been exposed to this before?

"Actually, Chisato-san..." Maya spoke up, head tilting slightly out of reflex. "How long have you been doing this, anyway? 'Cause you handled today like a total pro."

What...would a magical girl pro even look like, Maya?

"I did?" Chisato giggled a bit. "Thank you... I'm glad. It was definitely a big risk, since Hina-chan and I got there after Eve-chan did."

Whoa. Eve was closer to us? Maybe she was trailing this witch from the start. I'll have to ask her later, if I remember.

Her expression then hardened, eyes shifting to her hands, twiddling thumbs in her lap.

"But it's been six years," Chisato verified, sighing in between sentences. "It honestly feels like yesterday, some days."

She then rose her head to force a smile, eyebrows furrowed in melancholy.

"Though you have your good days with this job, you also have your bad days. But if I'm doing it alongside you, Hina-chan, Eve-chan, and Aya-chan, if she wants to, then I can only see good days on the horizon."

I sat up and placed my hand on my chest. That was so sweet, I'm probably going to cry again.

Maya giggled again, eyes dreamily shifting to the balcony door. The curtains shielded the three of us from the nighttime view, but Maya was still gazing in that direction as if it wasn't.

"Idol band by day, magical girl team by night?" Maya kind of joked.

"That sounds pretty cool, actually," I chimed in, even though I wasn't really a part of the magical girl scene. "What would we call ourselves? If we're...into that sort of thing."

I'm talking like I'm already a magical girl. Maybe I really do want to do this someday...

At least, if I do end up joining the others, I'll be in good company. We all already get along as good friends, yet alone bandmates. We care for each other.

"I have an idea, but..." Chisato tilted her head a bit in thought. "I think we should wait for Hina-chan and Eve-chan before deciding something like that."

True. I bet those two would have some pretty unique name ideas. I mean, we all would, but those two specifically probably have some that us here would never even consider.

"By the way, Aya-san..." Maya turned to me. "What do you think that whole...thing was earlier?"

"Thing?" Chisato rolled over onto her stomach, propping her head up with her hands to keep her eyes on Maya. "What thing? Did something happen?"

I guess Chisato didn't see Lisa and Tomoe.

"Do you know who else is a magical girl around here, Chisato-chan?" I asked her.

Chisato went to her back, eyes looking straight at the ceiling.

"I believe so?" she paused, lips pursed for a few moments. "If you're referring to the other girl bands... No, I've never seen a ring on any of them."

There was a small gasp as her head turned to me, some sort of realization probably hitting her.

"Though Hanasakigawa, at least, has a few magical girls. I haven't seen very many from Haneoka, but they do exist. Have you met Akane-chan? Akane Yamaoka? I think she's in your class."

Akane? We've never really talked, but I know of her.

I nodded in response. She's a magical girl? I never would've guessed, but that's probably the point Chisato's going for here: the more concealed a magical girl's status is, the better.

"Akane-chan's been accompanying me the past few weeks on witch hunts," Chisato confirmed, turning her head back to the ceiling. "She's not new at this, but she still has a lot to learn. I've been mentoring her when she asks for it, if you'd call it that."

"Huh..." I breathed, resting my head back on the bed.

Well, I guess this field could surprise anyone, pretty much. I mean, none of us would've expected Chisato to be in this in a million years. And she has so much experience under her belt...

"So Imai-san and Udagawa-san aren't magical girls?" Maya wanted to clarify.

Chisato shook her head, eyes glued to the ceiling.

"Unless they both contracted within the past few days," Chisato hypothesized, "then no, they're not. Why? Did you two see something?"

"Yeah, there were two Lisa-chans," I brought up? "when Lisa-chan had just left with Yukina-chan."

"And Udagawa-san's hand shined at us, and they both disappeared!" Maya exclaimed with a subtle wave of her hand. "Like we weren't supposed to see them or something."

Chisato looked towards me for a moment, just as confused as Maya and I were when this first happened.

She then rolled back into a sitting position, one knee allowing her to rest her arm on it as the other leg fell onto the sheets.

"You might've actually seen something you shouldn't have..." Chisato guessed, a rather stern gaze aimed at Maya's chair. "I don't know what that could mean, but I'll look into it tomorrow."

Snapping out of her seriousness brought back her usual smile, probably to reassure us.

"Whatever it is, we'll handle it. Or I will, if we can't. I promise you both."

The last thing I remember after letting out the biggest yawn imaginable was nodding slowly against the sheets, my mind at ease just enough to finally fall asleep for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chisato, you need to stop rolling. Why do you keep rolling? Why? You're like a Mii.
> 
> I don't know why I'm so amused by the idea of Maya and Aya just chillin' outside in pajamas in the middle of the night, but I am. I'm probably going to draw that, at some point. It'll definitely be after I draw the roofhopping, for sure. Heh.
> 
> I've been working on Akane and a few other magical girls in between writing and brainstorming for future bits. Chisato couldn't have possibly been the only magical girl in the city, right? No way. In that big of a place, there has to be competition. That's just how the system runs.
> 
> ...I should watch PMMM again.


	14. Well, Maybe...

"...-cha--..."

"...ya-chaaaaaaan..."

Is there...something on my face? On my cheeks? This feels weird...

Opening my eyes revealed a mischievous Hina, massaging and playing with my cheeks. She looked rather pleased with this.

"Aaaaaya-chaaaaaaan..." she continued, giggling in between singing my name.

Um, what.

When she noticed I was looking at her, she paused for a moment, then took her hands away from my face with another laugh.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead!" she waved, turning the end of it into a peace sign. "It's the afternoon! Can't let'cha sleep all day!"

The afternoon...? No way. I never sleep in that late. I'm hardly a morning person, but I'm enough of one to normally wake up at a time that's considered kind of decent.

"It's not that late..." I objected, finally sitting up straight. "It can't be."

Why would I sleep for that long? Unless Maya decided to let me wake up on my own.

Hina shook her head before marching on over to the side of the bed and doing a literal side flip onto it, eventually rolling over to look at me.

Oh, okay.

"It is!" she assured me, reaching into the pocket of her flannel to pull out her phone. Turning the screen towards me, she then unlocked her phone with a free finger.

...It's 3:17PM.

My jaw reflexively dropped in awe. Seriously?! I never do that! I haven't slept for this long since...ever, really.

Then again, yesterday was so hectic, I definitely needed that sleep. Maya probably figured that, too. I'll have to thank her later for this.

Finally rolling up to my feet to stretch, I let out one more yawn before picking up my phone off the floor.

Huh... I have a few texts.

There's one from an unknown number, apparently...?

Oh, I think it's Misaki. I guess she got my number the same way she got Maya's.

"Thank you for last night," she wrote. "And thank Yamato-san, too. We'll definitely be in your care, should we meet up with each other on witch hunts."

On witch hunts...? What is--

...Wait. I get it.

I guess Kyuubey really did head after those three after it left here. I'm not surprised, though, considering Kokoro and Hagumi's eagerness.

But who, specifically, became a magical girl? The way Misaki worded this makes it seem like there's multiple possibilities.

Was it only Misaki? She didn't seem too eager to contract while she was here, but she could've had a change of heart. She does have a good head on her shoulders, though, so if she did contract, then I bet it's for a good reason.

Are Kokoro and Hagumi in on this, too? Kokoro for sure, if I had to choose between the two of them. She definitely sounded like she had a plan in mind while she was here.

Kanon and Kaoru could've joined in as well, and it might not even be because of Kokoro's persistence.

Or I could be completely wrong about all of this. Who knows? Definitely not sleepy Aya over here, that's for sure.

"You guys weren't waiting for me to wake up, right...?" I hoped, turning away from Hina to look for my uniform.

"Naaah," Hina denied, "but you missed some wicked moves from Maya-chan!"

Wicked moves...? Did everyone but me go on a witch hunt already today or something?

Oh, here's my clothes.

"I'm serious!" I could hear Hina roll off the bed and skip over to me before sliding directly in front of my field of vision. "It was suuuper boppin'! There was this craaazy witch! And Eve-chan was like WOOSH! And she grabbed Chisato-chan and they went ZOOM! SLASH! CLANG! POWAWA!"

She was flailing her arms the entire time, as if to animate the whole story. It was kind of comical.

"But the witch was gearin' up for a SMACK!" she continued with a loud clap. "So here's my chance, right?! I gotta help 'em! So I was all KERPOW! PUWAAAAA! STABBY STABBY!"

An index finger was then shoved in my face, wagging directly in front of my nose. She probably bopped my nose a few times, which would explain why it was suddenly super itchy.

"I thought I was stabbin' it, y'know?! But that wasn't me! That was Maya-chan! She had this cool lil' beepy thing that popped outta her glasses! Like she was scannin' stuff! She had these little stabby things that she could throw at it like PEW!"

Huh... That could mean a lot of things.

"So you guys went witch hunting already today?" I wondered, finally bending down to pick up my pile of clothes.

Chisato heads out in broad daylight to fight witches? When would she have the time? Then again, those long periods where she's absent from school because of acting roles probably has a factor in this.

But I figured during the day would be the most dangerous, considering how easily people could recognize us. She must be pretty sneaky with this, then.

"Uh-huh!" Hina verified, placing her hands on her hips. "It was Chisato-chan's idea! Get us all rrrarin' up for the long haul!"

I mean, more experience under your belt is definitely a good thing, but running around without the night to cover you...? I sure hope everything's safe...

"You're not gonna just put your stinky ol' clothes from yesterday back on, are 'ya?" Hina then snatched the pile out of my hands.

"Wha--?!" I didn't even know how to react! "I-I'm not--... I'm not smelly!"

"But who wears their uniform on a Suuunday? What're you headin' to school for on a Sunday?! Take a break, will 'ya?!"

"I'm not going t--"

"Then c'mon!"

And after quickly shifting my clothes to one arm, Hina then grabbed my arm with her now free hand and began to lead me out of Maya's room.

~ * ~

Much to my strong refusal, Hina dragged me back to my own home, but not before picking up my shoes and school bag at Maya's front door along the way.

As she brought me to my door, she insisted that I hurry up and get ready for the day, or what was left of it, at least. She wouldn't tell me what she was so eager for, but I'll probably find it out at some point today.

So I did what she wanted me to do. Dropping off anything school-related on my bed, I finished my morning-ish routine, grabbed my purse, and met Hina outside.

I doubt Maya would mind if I kept her pajamas for a little while longer...? Besides, who gives someone back their clothes without washing them first? That's just disgusting.

Hina's face lit up as soon as she saw me, skipping on over to grab both of my hands.

Oh--

"Sweet!" she exclaimed, marching in place at top speeds. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! We gotta get goin'!"

Hina began to turn and start pulling me back in the direction we came, but I didn't move from my spot, causing her to tilt her head back to me.

But instead of asking me why I wasn't budging or if something was the matter, she just stared at me, confused, with that same little pout she'd made her trademark by now.

...Hina never was good at reading other people like this. I don't know why I'm so surprised.

"What are we in such a rush for, anyway?" I finally asked her. "It's the middle of the day."

Seriously, though! I'm not a magical girl. Not yet, at least. I highly doubt Chisato would want me tagging along on magical girl duties.

Hina let go with a giggle, spinning back around to me with her hands back on her hips.

"Aaaya-chan, Aya-chan, Aya-chan!" she repeated, almost to a tune of her own. "Maya-chan wanted me to wake you up, y'know?"

There was a slight pause in her explanation as she froze entirely, even her overly excited face.

"Actually, it was mooore like I offered. I dunno! I figured we could hang out for a lil' bit! Whaddya say? Let's have some fun!"

...Have some fun?

I mean, I definitely wouldn't object to taking a breather, especially after yesterday, but...why me? Why today, specifically? I feel like there's something here I'm not fully comprehending.

Could I even ask her for that clarification, though...? This is Hina I'm talking about here. It's not like she'd stop to reevaluate this stuff when she's this determined about something.

"You wanted to go somewhere with me?" I decided to try and figure out, even though I think I know where this is going.

"Uh-huh! Uh-huh!" Hina beamed, reaching for my hands yet again. "You're hungry, aren't'cha? Let's go get somethin'! My treat!"

Oh, I--

"LINE!"

My hands immediately went into my purse, followed shortly by Hina shoving hers into her flannel's pockets.

Was that my phone, or was that hers? I've had mine on vibrate for so long, I can't even remember what my text notification sound is for LINE.

Is my phone even off of vibrate...?

"Oh, shoot!" Hina blurted out, wide-eyed at her phone. "It's Moca-chan...? What is--..."

There was a long pause as she resorted to squinting at her screen, very visibly confused by what she was reading on it.

After a solid twenty seconds or so, she started rapidly texting, not looking up for anything.

"Has Moca-chan always known about this magic stuff?" she quickly asked to what I assumed was the air. "I didn't think she did! Never really pegged her for the magical girl type. Then again, I've only been doing this for a few days now. It's not like I'm gonna know every magical girl out there right off the bat, y'know? But how does she know that I know about it, anyway?! I didn't tell anyone in--!"

Hina stopped herself short, thumbs and all, to probably reconsider what she just said.

"I... I diiid tell a few people about it last night, but..."

And with a few more taps to finish the text, she then locked her phone and held it to her chest.

"But I didn't tell Moca-chan! Or anyone in Afterglow, for that matter! Gaaah, this is confusiiiiing..."

That...reminds me.

"Did you tell Lisa-chan?" I guessed.

It was a shot in the dark, sure, but I figured I'd give it a chance. If Lisa and Tomoe have some suspicious things going on, then what's stopping the rest of Afterglow from being in on that, too? Or anyone else, really.

Hina pouted to the sky, supposedly mulling over my question.

"Yeeeah?" she eventually confirmed with a sigh. "She was one of 'em, yeah... But Lisa-chi can keep secrets!"

I'm starting to wonder what that conversation was even about, to be honest, but it's probably none of my business.

And as if like clockwork, Hina's LINE went off again. She had her phone unlocked before it even finished notifying her, cutting off the end of the word.

"Euuugh... Chisato-chan would kill me if I brought you with me to this, but she'd probably kill me if I showed up later without'cha! I dunno what to dooo..."

What, did Moca find a witch?! If there's a witch around somewhere, don't worry about me, Hina! Please! Go and take care of that!

Then again, Hina knows how to protect someone, if need be. I know that for a fact, at this point. I understand why this would make Chisato angry, but I feel like I'd be less worried about all of this if I went with her.

If it's going to be safer to stay close to Hina and tag along to a witch barrier, then food can wait until later. I had a quick snack inside while I was getting dressed, anyway. I'll be fine until this is taken care of.

"I don't mind going with you," I admitted. "I probably need the experience, anyway."

Well, that last part definitely slipped out.

Hina gasped as soon as I finished, then sped through her reply to Moca so she could shove her locked phone back in her pocket and head back to grabbing my hands.

"You're thinking of becoming a magical girl?!" she began to gush, jumping right back into her little marching dance. "That's great! Amazing! Wonderful! Pastel*Palettes by day, magical girl team by night! We'd be suuuuuper boppin', don't'cha think?! We could take the whole city-- no, all of Japan by storm! We'd be legendary! Just like the Sailo--"

"Hina-chan!" I finally cut her off with, the anxiety rising from this conversation making me chuckle nervously. "I haven't even figured out a wish yet. It's probably gonna take some time."

Stopping her feet, Hina giggled back at me, bending over.

"Sooorry, sorry..." she breathed, waiting for her laughter to die down before she stood back up straight. "But it's cool that you're thinkin' about it! Wouldn't it be fun if we could all help each other out like that, though?! Just think of all the stories we'd have!"

"It would be cool, yeah," I nodded. "But let's save that for later. Where did Moca-chan tell you to go?"

Maybe I need to wish for Hina to take this magical girl business more seriously.

...I'm kidding. Really.

"Yeah, yeah! I know!" she acknowledged with a nonchalant wave before officially guiding me on our merry way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powawa. This feels like an Ako influence. I like it.
> 
> Also, y'know that one comic panel where Himari's yelling at Ran for not answering her texts? I found out that the JP server says it's LINE messages. No wonder that little sliver of the interface looked so familiar to me. I'm so going to take advantage of that now, haha.
> 
> School's officially started back up again, so I'm writing chapters in a notebook before transferring them to my phone during editing. I think I prefer this method so far. It's how I usually write roleplay replies, so...
> 
> This doesn't mean chapters are going to start taking longer, however. This semester is pretty laid back so far, so I won't be surprised if I keep at my regular pace, or close to it, at least.
> 
> Actually, what got me taking my sweet time was more planning. There's quite a bit up my sleeves, and I'm excited for those plot points to finally roll out, whenever that ends up happening.


	15. Maybe We're Onto Something

"Haneoka?"

We stood in front of the entrance to Hina's school, peering inside. There were handfuls of students here and there, but schools didn't have classes on Sundays anyway. Not Haneoka or Hanasakigawa, at least.

I, for one, was confused. Low-key confused, high-key concerned.

How is there a witch here? These girls definitely don't look like they're under some kind of weird mind control spell. None of them are even going in the same direction. And there's no one else trying to get past the gates besides us...

But if there really is a witch around here somewhere, then these girls are in danger, and we need to act fast. I don't think I could handle it if we have to repeat last night.

"That's what Moca-chan said..." Hina locked her phone and slipped it back into her flannel with a shrug. "I dunno where, though."

"And it's not like we could ask around, either..." I let out a sigh.

We don't really know of any other magical girls yet, do we...? I don't, at least. Chisato probably does, but...she's not here.

"Unless Kaoru-kun's here," Hina noted, heading towards the glass doors in long strides.

...Kaoru?

i jogged a bit to catch up.

"Why would Kaoru-san know, though...?" I questioned, reflexively grabbing onto the end of Hina's flannel so I could stay close to her.

"'Cause I saw her witch huntin' last night!" Hina affirmed as she opened the door and slipped inside. I followed shortly behind.

Maybe I was right to assume that Kokoro got them all to contract. That would've had to have happened sometime yesterday, right? It would've been sometime after she'd picked up Kanon.

"Whoa..." I breathed, forcing myself to drop the subject there.

I want to ask Hina if the other four were there as well, but doing that in public wouldn't be a good idea. What if someone overheard us? Especially if they were one of Kaoru's fans. The news would spread like wildfire before we even got to Kaoru.

We should just focus on finding Kaoru before we start our own little gossip corner.

Hina led me up the stairs to the top floor of the school, scanning the hallways like a sailor searching for land.

My eyes kept shifting to the walls. There was something about walking around in someone else's school that had a forbidden, yet mysterious air about it. It was li--

"Ow!"

Lost in those thoughts, I ended up crashing right into someone walking by. The shock of it sent me backwards and to the floor, along with the person I hit and the flyers they were holding.

Wait a second. Flyers?

Rubbing my cheek, I finally brought my eyes up to see who I'd bumped into. Hina was already picking up the flyers I'd scattered.

"Oh! Tsugumi-chan!" I exclaimed, quickly scrambling to my feet to hold out my hand for her. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?!"

Tsugumi first looked to the flyers in a panic, but quickly dismissed that, seeing as how Hina had almost all of them in her hands.

Since that was pretty much taken care of, she accepted my hand and let me help her up.

I don't see a Soul Gem ring...? Huh. Maybe there's a hole in my theory, then.

"No, it's okay!" she reassured me. "Really. I wasn't looking, with that massive stack in front of me."

As Hina stood up with the flyers, she giggled at their height.

"Yeah, what're 'ya doin' with all these on a Sunday?" Hina wondered, trying to position the stack just right so she could see what the top flyer said. "It's the weekend! Can't the student council take a break or somethin'?"

Tsugumi let out a rather embarrassed chuckle, reaching for the stack.

"Actually, I was helping Seta-senpai put up some advertisements for the drama club," she clarified, looking at the flyers with an arched brow. "I don't know why there's so many, though... I definitely won't be able to find a spot for all of these."

Now that I look at them, this is quite a bit for just advertising a club. Why this many, Kaoru?

\-- Wait. Kaoru.

"Kaoru-san is here today?" I noticed. "Do you know where she is right now?"

"Shoot, yeah!" Hina finally passed the stack back to Tsugumi. "Good thinkin', Aya-chan!"

Well, don't go and make Tsugumi all suspicious, Hina. It's probably already weird for me, a Hanasakigawa student that's literally never here, to be here with you.

Tsugumi accepted the flyers with a nod of thanks and a soft smile. She then turned around to look down the hallway.

"She should still be in the drama club room," she instructed, pointing with her foot for a couple moments before dropping it to twirl back around to us.

Hina immediately then grabbed my arm and began to bolt over to the other stairway.

"Thanks, Tsugu-chan!" she sang, waving with her free hand.

I tried to get a wave in before Hina literally dra--

"Hina-senpai? Aya-san...?"

We both skidded to a halt at the door to the student council room, fully open to let us see inside.

And there was...Tsugumi, completely bewildered at the sight of us.

"Tsugumi-...chan?" I eventually forced through my lips.

Hina and I both whipped our heads back down the hallway in the other direction.

Tsugumi, with her stack of flyers, was calmly turning the corner and out of our sight, without a care in the world. She hadn't even noticed...this.

Oh, boy.

There's two Tsugumis. There's legit two Tsugumis.

How is this even possi--

Actually, wait. This could, potentially, explain a lot of things.

"Is something wrong?" Tsugumi tapped me on the shoulder to bring me back to reality.

She probably did that to Hina, too, because as soon as I got that tap, Hina let go of me and broke into a sprint to catch up to the other Tsugumi.

"Ah--..." I could hardly process it in time. Hina was around the corner before I even knew what was going on.

Thank you, Hina, for just up and leaving me in the dust.

What should I do...? Should I stay here with this Tsugumi, or do I run after the other one? Which one's which?!

"Aya-san...?" this Tsugumi repeated, probably even more confused now.

I finally turned to face her and reflexively beelined my gaze to her left hand.

...She has a Soul Gem ring. It had a mustard yellow gem in the middle of the silver, from the bit that I could see at this angle.

This Tsugumi, unlike the other one, is very visibly a magical girl.

I don't know what possessed me to point at it, but I just let it happen.

"That ring is--..." I mumbled, my trembling hand focused on this anomaly.

Wide-eyed for a moment, this Tsugumi brought her left hand up to her face to actually get a good look at it.

"My ring?" She then flipped her hand around so I could see it as well.

That is, without a doubt, a Soul Gem ring. This Tsugumi is a magical girl, for sure.

"It's cute, isn't it?" she giggled, lowering her hand back to her side. "It feels like I have a piece of something that connects me to everyone else."

I have...no idea what that means, but I kind of feel like she's trying to take my attention away from it. I mean, I know what a Soul Gem ring looks like. She's not going to fool me, in that regard. In other magic things, maybe, but definitely not this.

Maybe I wasn't supposed to find out that this Tsugumi's a magical girl. I probably just came across someone and something that didn't want to be acknowledged. This Tsugumi is probably here for a reason, just like how there's two Lisas.

There's two Lisas. There's two Lisas, isn't there? That must be the reasoning I was looking for. There's two Lisas, definitely two Tsugumis, and probably two Tomoes.

Maybe there's two Mocas as well. It'd probably explain why she knew that Hina was familiar with magic.

And what's stopping there being two Rans and two Himaris, too?

"It's--..." I cleared my throat. "Yeah! It's definitely cute! Where'd you get it?"

I have you now, Tsugumi doppelganger...or actual Tsugumi! You can't possibly make an excuse up on the spot!

"Oh, um..." she paused, biting her bottom lip in thought. "I'm not...entirely sure...? I'm sorry. I've had it for quite a while, though."

Knew it. Kneeew it.

I didn't think she'd just up and tell me about Kyuubey, but I'm onto you, Tsugumi. I'm onto you.

"Huh..." I took to rocking back and forth on my heels, clasping my hands in front of me.

Would this Tsugumi be willing to help me find the drama club room, or does she need to stay here so she could avoid the other Tsugumi?

"Oh, by the way..." I stopped rocking and promptly checked my phone for a moment, peeking into my purse to see if Hina had texted me.

Gah. Nope.

"Where's the drama club room?" I asked her as I closed my purse back up "Hina-chan and I were looking for Kaoru-san."

This is probably some stupidly random way of thinking, but if she can't lead me down there, maybe she really is confined to this room. Maybe she's aware of the other Tsugumi, and she's actively avoiding her by staying here.

"Oh, I can show you, if you'd like!" she cheerfully offered, therefore...shattering my little theory into thousands of pieces.

Wait, what?

Okay, maybe this is the actual Tsugumi, and the one with the flyers is the doppelganger. This Tsugumi might not even know that there's another her here. Not to mention that the other Tsugumi literally walked right...past this open door, didn't she?

...I'm getting a headache.

"Could you?" I forced a grin, trying to ignore the whirlwind of confusion that was going through my head right now. "Thanks! Hina-chan was kind of my tour guide here..."

This Tsugumi, with a rather eager spring in her step, quickly skipped on out of the student council room and slid the door closed, then made her way to the staircase the other Tsugumi had told Hina and I to head down.

"I don't know why Hina-senpai brought you up here, if you guys're looking for the drama club room." She gently placed her hand on the metal railing as she began the descent down the stairs.

What, is the drama club room far...? Why did Hina bring me up to the top floor, then?

"Hm? Where is it?" I decided to ask.

"It's on the ground floor, next to the gym," this Tsugumi clarified. "Were you guys only looking for the drama club room?"

"Yeah, we... We were," I trailed off, slipping back into my thoughts a bit.

Hina, what the heck?

Maya's in the drama club as well, isn't she? I'd be very surprised if Hina didn't know where it was, in that case.

I'm starting to think Hina was actually acting like a tour guide.

~ * ~

This Tsugumi led me, as she'd promised, all the way down to the ground floor, next to the gym. Hina was nowhere to be seen the entire time.

"Here we are!" she gestured to the closed door with a flourish.

Wow. I can actually hear Kaoru through the door.

"Thanks again, Tsugumi-chan!" I gave her a small wave as I reached for the door. "If you see Hina-chan again, could you send her down this way?"

With an acknowledging nod, she spun around and skipped away, disappearing around the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a headache along with you, Aya. You're good.
> 
> Ah, yes... Haneoka, the place of two Tsugumis, apparently. And they're both super chill. But which one's which?
> 
> The fact that everyone but Kaoru gets the -chan honorific from Aya is such a relief when trying to determine that for characters she's never spoken to. My god.
> 
> I couldn't remember or find if it was shown anywhere, so I completely guessed the layout of Haneoka. If there's even a skeleton of a layout somewhere and I screwed this up majorly, please show me so I can correct those paragraphs.


	16. This Feels Right To Me

"-- the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: there's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st but in his motion an angel si--..."

Eyes shut and deep in her character, it took Kaoru quite a while to notice me standing in the doorway.

But once she did, she strolled on over to me with a smirk, bowing to hold out her hand.

...Do I have to take it? I decided to place a hand in hers—as slow as possible, with a subtle shakiness—to tell her I'd accepted this gesture of hers.

"My eyes do not deceive me, I see!" She straightened herself just enough to plant a soft kiss on the back of the hand I'd given her. "To think that such a rosy beauty would grace my sacred abode! I am charmed, for sure. Enchantée, mademoiselle."

Oh, uh--

"Tell me, my dear kitten." She then shifted her gaze to mine, straightening herself. "Do you believe in cosmic destiny? A chance at testing fate in the roulettes of our lives? Because this meeting of ours must have been planned by some celestial entity. Perhaps Venus entangled our strings?"

Was...that her way of asking me why I was here? I don't think I know how to respond to this...

"Aya-san!" another voice rang out from the other side of the room, so I tu--

"Long time no see!" Himari beamed, skipping on over to Kaoru and I. "What're you doing here? I don't think Maya-senpai is here today. Are you here on some idol business?"

Help me, Himari. Please. I'm stuck.

My eyes immediately went to her left hand. Sure enough, there was yet another Soul Gem ring—a shade of pink that stood out among the silver—on it.

Well, I'll be.

That makes at least two, maybe even three or four Afterglow members that are magical girls. And I'm not even trying to consider the whole doppelganger mess right now.

Actually, yeah... Which Himari is this? Is she from this world, or is she a fake?

...If that's even how I should be thinking about this.

Maybe Ran's a magical girl as well...? I know Afterglow is pretty closely knit as it is. If at least half of them are magical girls, then maybe the other half are, too.

I looked back to Kaoru's hands to scan for a Soul Gem ri--

Yup. Yup, Kaoru has one, too. And a purple one, at that. I don't know why I even bothered to look, considering Hina even mentioned that Kaoru had contracted.

"Um..." I took my hand back and clasped them both together.

They're both magical girls. I don't see why I couldn't just tell them about the witch without causing a bunch of confusion.

I slowly shuffled around to gently hold onto the door, then slide it closed.

Yeah... This shouldn't be too hard to do, right? This shouldn't be hard to do at all. They both would know what I'm talking about. I just need to stop being so nervous about it and open my mouth.

I just hope I don't say something dumb...

"There's, uh..." I shifted back around to them. "There's a... Hina-chan and I heard there's a...witch somewhere in the school."

Good job, Aya. Good job. That didn't cause the end of the world like you thought it was going to. You did good.

As soon as I mentioned a witch, they both dropped their smiles almost in unison.

"...Here?" Himari questioned, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Of all places? No way..."

Kaoru paused for a moment in shock, probably to think this whole thing through.

She then grabbed my hands and held them tightly, refusing to break eye contact with me.

But why in the--

"Do you know where?" she almost pleaded. "Please."

This is such a strong difference in how Kaoru usually acts... I'm not sure if I should be concerned, but I'm very concerned.

However, I have to shake my head no.

"We were wondering if you knew, to be honest..." I admitted with a sigh.

At least it won't be just Hina and I trying to find this thing. That was how I thought this was going to go, at first. Having even one extra person along for the ride that I know we can trust to have our backs definitely eases my anxiety.

"Well, let's get looking!" Himari fist pumped the air. "Who wants to track it? Kaoru-senpai?"

Kaoru held out her ring hand with a small chuckle, allowing her Soul Gem to materialize onto the palm of her hand.

Weird... I can't make out what that symbol is. It kind of looks like a flower, but it's such a small design, I can't really tell, from this angle...

"To learn a valuable skill from a gifted mind such as yours, Himari-chan..." She winked in Himari's direction. "It would be my honor."

I'm kiiind of thinking that was her way of saying she doesn't know how to do that. Or she just doesn't want to do it.

Actually, do I even know what Himari's talking about? I don't think Hina does, either, or else we would've found the witch right off the bat.

What would we be tracking, though? Would that be the witch itself, or would we be playing detective to try to find some clues or a trail the witch left behind?

"Do you know how, Himari-chan?" I hoped.

She hesitantly brought her gem out of her ring, giggling nervously.

"Not...really," she denied, avoiding eye contact entirely. "Tsugu and Ran are the ones that usually do the whole tracking thing, but I can give it a try..."

Ran?

I guess I was right about assuming Ran was a magical girl, too.

So Afterglow is secretly a team of magical girls. Or half of them are magical girls, and the other half just know a lot about magic.

Or that last bit is just Moca.

Biting her bottom lip, Himari held her free hand over the gem, staring super intently at it.

It eventually let off a glow, growing stronger by the moment.

"Oh!" She backed up a couple steps, wide-eyed at this discovery.

I guess that's how it works?

Hina, this is really easy. At least, it looks really easy. Let's do this next time, please, instead of blindly checking every nook and cranny.

Kaoru leaned forward a bit, squinting at Himari's gem.

"Interesting..." Standing back up straight just as quickly, she gently nudged me to the side to open the door herself. "Well! We can't just let this demon steal our princess away, don't you agree? Let us find this foul beast!"

Our princess?

Whatever, I guess. I'm hardly ever around Kaoru, if at all. Himari doesn't seem to be bothered by any of this, so this is probably how Kaoru normally acts.

And because of that, I waited for Kaoru to leave the room and for Himari to take the lead before I went after them.

There's something completely different about following these two than when I was following just Hina.

Maybe it's because of the situation itself, because as soon as the Soul Gems came out, I felt a lot calmer.

...How have I not come up with a wish yet?

I don't know why, but it feels like Himari, at least, has been doing this longer than Kaoru and Hina. She knows what tracking is, while the other two seemed to have no clue about this method.

The whole thing makes me wonder if this is the real Himari or not, though. There being two Tsugumis really threw a wrench into that theory I was cooking up.

Figuring out who's who is going to be a lot harder from now on. For Afterglow and Lisa, at least.

We eventually found ourselves in another building entirely, carefully tiptoeing down one of Haneoka's many hallways.

I've lost track of what floor we're even on, to be honest... Probably because I wasn't fully paying attention, anyway.

But how does anyone get to class on time here? Unless memorizing the layout of the school is a part of going here.

"Oh, Aya-san..." Himari kept her eyes on the floor and walls, deep in concentration. "Are you sure you want to come with us? It might be hard to keep you safe..."

That sounds like something Chisato would say. She probably said that this morning, I bet.

I mean, I don't want to get in the way, but...

"Nonsense!" Kaoru waved her free hand around. "Jeanne d'Arc didn't chase away help when it came to her aid! She protected all!"

I... I don't think that's entirely right.

Himari was mumbling something to herself, but I couldn't make out any of it.

"But Aya-san can't help us without magi--"

"I will take care of that!" Kaoru cut her off with, then spun around to me so she was walking backwards.

Wait, that's not very sa--

"Are you familiar with weaponry?" she asked. "How to wield one? Any weapon."

Himari immediately opened her mouth to object, but Kaoru held out an arm to silence her.

"The arms are fair when the intent of bearing them is just..." Kaoru pointed to the ceiling. "If you wish to join us, I'll gladly assist you."

...I'm afraid.

"Well... Not really," I told her hesitantly. "I've never tried to fight. Never had to."

Kaoru nodded either way, then turned back around to walk normally.

"I'd like to propose a--"

"Found it!" Himari called out, pointing across the way to a rather suspicious-looking door.

It looked...backwards, compared to the rest of the doors down this hallway. Was it flickering a bit? I'm not even sure if that's the right word.

"This looks like one..." Himari stepped towards it.

"...It does?" Kaoru wondered, squinting.

With the top of her Soul Gem, Himari lightly tapped the door. It promptly flickered even more.

Kaoru blinked a few times at an unnatural pace, then cleared her throat.

"I-I mean, it does!" she attempted to cover up. "Wonderful job, Himari-chan! Absolutely wonderful!"

"But how do we get in...?" I scanned the door with my eyes.

Yeah, how does someone get in a witch's barrier? When you're not dragged into it or it's not forming around you, I mean.

"I'll do it!" Himari declared, then held her Soul Gem up into the air. The pink glow from it grew almost bright enough to blind someone as it swirled the door open into a portal of some sort.

Kaoru threw her hands in the air for a triumphant laugh, then went ahead of Himari and I to step partially through the portal.

"The king's son, Ferdinand, with hair up-staring—then, like reeds, not hair—was the first man that leaped, cried, 'Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!'" She then cocked her head back to us. "Come, my little kittens! I shall keep you safe behind my beloved shield!"

And with a quick burst of glitter and light, Kaoru shifted to magical girl form—a white and purple knight, identity half shielded with a piece of a masquerade-esque mask—and hopped on through the portal in full.

...Uh. What?

"If you wanna head back and wait for Hina-senpai, no one's gonna be upset." Himari turned to me finally. "That'd probably be safer for you."

Why was there such a big emphasis on me being safe...? I want the experience. Is there really something wrong with me wanting to tag along?

Then again, now that I know where this place is, I could probably lead Hina here. If I could find her, that is.

"Maybe I should look for Hina-chan..." I took a couple steps back.

Himari nodded, grinning back at me.

"Sounds good!" she agreed, holding up her Soul Gem. "I'll text 'ya if we get this done before we meet up again, yeah?"

I nodded, pulling my phone back out and unlocking it.

Huh... Still no messages from Hina? Or anyone, for that matter.

Oh, why did you have to run off without me, Hina? Where did you even go...?

"Actually, I--..." I brought my head back up to tell Himari I changed my mind, but...

She's...not here. The heck?

The portal is beginning to close, too. She probably went inside...

Well, okay.

I slid my phone back in my purse and closed it tightly.

As much as I really don't want to go in after those two, I can't help it. I can't figure out why I can't help it, but I seriously can't.

Maybe there's something I could help them with. Something only I could do. Maybe there's something that magical girls can't do, but someone like me could.

And there was only one way to find out. Chisato's definitely going to yell at me for this, but I'm not going to turn back now. Not this time.

My legs moved on their own, helping me leap right through the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesssss... I finished editing this chapter right before class. Sweet.
> 
> I've been grinding my ass off to get Kaede and Konoha's Doppels in this event. I got another Konoha slot with that "get a free 4* with the pity roll" thing in the anniversary event, so that 'kinda solidified who's gonna be my main water type. Sorry, Sayaka.
> 
> God, Kaoru's fun to write. My stupidly large knowledge of Shakespeare definitely helps me pinpoint random quotes to throw in, that's for sure. ~~I've had to read Hamlet way too many times over the years for comfort.~~
> 
> I'm kind of surprised that Kaoru's never talked to Aya before...? I'm a liiiiittle iffy on trying to figure out what honorific she'd use, though. I half want to say -chan, but I also want to say no honorific at all, since the -chan seems to be for the first years, save for the ones in HaroHapi.


	17. But Is It Really?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: wounds, blood, glass shards (all minor, but talked about for a little while)

I landed on the ground with a loud crack, not sticking the landing at all as I slipped and fell directly on my face.

...Ow?

It was hard to get up into an actual sitting position, but I eventually managed so I could take a look around the area.

Whoa... All I can make out is my reflection. There's a me on every wall, and even the floor.

Creepy. It's like a mirror maze, but without the maze part. Who needs this many mirrors otherwise?

The floor below me is cracked, though...

Wait. Cracked?

As soon as it hit me, I frantically scrambled backwards until I could feel my head touch against another mirror.

Oh, no. Oh, no no no no no. I cracked that when I came in here, I bet. Ohhhh, no.

I'm going to die here. I'm definitely, definitely going to die here. I could've listened to Himari and actually kept my word, but nooo. I just had to try and join the fun.

Looking back up to where I came in from, I could just barely see the portal swirling away and out of sight.

Well, if I wanted to try and back out again, I definitely couldn't now.

But how am I going to catch up to Himari and Kaoru...? I can't even hear Kaoru anymore, despite how loud she was when she came in here. Am I really that far away from those two?

And that crack over there... I don't think I want to know what would happen if I fell through that.

So I slowly slid around the perimeter of this weird mirror room. Maybe I can keep it from cracking even more if I stay as far away from it as I can...

I refuse to to take my eyes off of that crack. I can't. It felt like, as soon as I looked away from it, it was going to grow and swallow me whole as it shattered under me.

Come on... Come on, please... Please don't kill me... Please, please don't kill me...

I don't know how long it took, but I eventually made it out of the room, surprisingly enough. Since the whole thing was mirrors, I couldn't even tell where the exit was to begin with, if it even had one. I figured I'd find something, though, if I was patient enough.

And as soon as I found it, I rolled onto my back with a large sigh of relief.

I couldn't help but let a few tears slip out, wiping them away with the back of my hand.

Whatever that was, I really hope I don't have to see it again. I don't want to worry people more than I already am by being in here alone.

Opening my eyes again, I let my hand fall onto the grou--

...Crack. That was another crack. I could see it out of the corner of my eye and everything.

Great! My stupid hand went and cracked the floor again! Now I'm definitely going to get myself killed here!

I mean, I don't have much of an idea to get myself out of this, but I do have one idea...

Maybe if I move a lot faster instead of ridiculously slow, I could beat the cracking and make it to the others before anything bad happens to me.

I may not have the speed, though, but I do have the stamina. As long as nothing gets in my way, I bet I could get to safety, wherever that is.

This is probably the worst idea I've had in the past 24 hours, but I've had enough of going through all these freaky things on my own. I can't do it anymore!

I bolted it. I shuffled to my feet, gradually picked up some kind of a pace, and bolted it for dear life.

"Himari-chan!" I decided to yell, hoping someone would hear me. "Kaoru-san! Someone! Please...!"

That crack is catching up, isn't it?! Come on! Go a bit faster! Move, legs! Mo--

...Oh. There goes the floor.

Quick! Something to grab onto? Something to grab onto?! Something to stop my screami--

"Ow!" I sharply pulled my hand away and clutched my palm.

Why did I try to grab onto the broken floor?! Literally who touches broken mirror shards with their bare hands?!

But now I don't see anything else that I could try and hold onto, so I'm out of reasons to convince myself to stop screeching so loudly.

I guess this is just my consequence for coming in here defenseless...? If the witch could laugh, I bet it'd be laughing at me right now.

What did I even hope to accomplish by doing this? I'm not a magical girl yet, so I can't help anyone here. I took a chance that should've never even been on my mind in the first place.

My hand was already in enough pain. I didn't want to die here, as much as the odds probably weren't in my favor right now. I haven't been able to see very much since I got here, but maybe I can shield myself the smallest amount...

I need to stop panicking. If I die here, I know exactly who I'd be disappointing. I can't let all those people down.

However long it's been, it's allowed me to go from looking up towards the ceiling to standing upright. At least, that's what the wind rushing by is telling me.

I know I need to keep my head safe, for the most part, so I wrapped my arms around it the best I could and pulled my chin to my chest.

This is absolutely terrifyi--

Ow! Gah! I think I just landed right on top of a mirror, 'cause however it just shattered, I can feel a couple pieces of it at my feet and legs that I probably shouldn't.

I straightened myself. Did a...mirror just break my fall from a mirror? This is definitely some crazy carnival witch type of thing.

There's still not that much light down here, but the neon along the edges of the walls is a nice touch, compared to the even dimmer visibility up above. This lets me just barely see that I literally landed on a mirror.

...What are those drops falling from my right hand?

I turned it around so I could look at my palm.

Oh... I think I sliced my palm open when I tried to break my fall in the beginning. That's just great.

How do I even treat this...? I don't have anything on me that I could patch this up with!

This isn't going to make me faint from blood loss, is it? How much blood does someone need to lose before that happens, anyway? Or am I, with all of this magical girl stuff going on around me, stuck in anime logic, and won't have any problems fixing up my hand soon because someone more important to the plot than me will come and heal it?!

Calm down, Aya. Freaking out isn't going to help you here. It didn't help you get to Himari and Kaoru, so it's definitely not going to do you any good here.

Let's see... The floor doesn't reflect back at me here, so I think I'm finally standing on something solid.

I can still see myself on the walls, though. Maybe I was right to assume this was like a mirror maze of some sort.

With a shaky start, I began to slowly shuffle forward and off of the pile of shards.

Maybe, just maybe...I'm closer to Himari and Kaoru now. I didn't take the most graceful route down here, sure, but I still made it, so it's something to be...kind of proud of.

I clasped my hands together as tight as I could, like if I was giving myself a handshake. I hope this could slow down the bleeding, even if it's only a little bit...

Oh, Chisato's going to kiiill me... She's definitely going to ki--

"Is that you, Aya-san~?"

My feet immediately stopped moving, almost making me lose my balance.

"Who in the--...?" I mumbled to myself, slowly scanning the area back and forth.

I should know that voice. I'm almost certain I do, but I don't think my brain knows how to comprehend anything other than my wound right now.

"Yeah, right~?" the voice called out again, finally accompanied by a shadowy figure stepping towards me. "It's really you~?"

Whoa, it's... It's Moca-chan. And she's not in a magical girl form.

"Moca-chan...?" I forced through.

Her face lit up—with that deadpan air she always carried under the thicker veil of her uniquely expressive personality—as soon as she realized I'd recognized her, eyes widening.

"Aaah~! I'm so glad~!" she slowly giggled to me with a small grin. "I've been walking around for sooo long~... I didn't think anyone else was here~!"

Her head then slowly tilted to the side, index finger tapping her chin.

"Do you know where we are~? I lost Ran~... We were trying to find a way out~."

...Ran? Ran's here? But she's a magical girl, isn't she? Shouldn't she be trying to find the witch, not avoiding it entirely?

Moca lazily turned around to face the direction she came from, arms outstretched.

"This is like a biiig carnival maze~! I don't like iiit~... Not if Ran's alone~. She's afraid of the dark, you see~."

And with an even slower cock of the head, she looked back at me.

"You'll help me look for her, right, Aya-san~? Being alone in a place you don't know isn't fun~... It's scary~! We should probably stick together~."

I mean, I can't argue with that. Running into Moca is probably the best thing that could've happened to me right now, even though we're both not magical girls.

But...I'm certain Himari said Ran was a magical girl. She definitely implied it, at least. Why would Moca not be one, too? Especially if she's running around in a witch barrier.

The fact that she's so calm about this is probably what's throwing me off.

Maybe this is a different Moca than the one that was texting Hina? But it wouldn't explain how she knew what she knew...

"Of course I will!" I accepted with a nod. "These places are way too scary to go through on your own. I dunno how I even got this far..."

I held my good hand out to her.

"Let's find her as fast as we can! If we both work together, I'm sure we can do it!"

But instead of accepting my handshake, Moca stared at it with great concern.

"Is your hand bleeding~?!" She pointed at it in a panic.

Oh, wait. Shoot.

"Yeah, it is..." I raised my wounded hand. "I probably cut it on some glass as I fell down here. No worries."

No worries. I'm just bleeding in the middle of a place that doesn't have anything I could use to stop it. No worries.

"Why didn't you say so sooner~?!" Moca questioned before taking a step back.

And there was all that glitz and glamor I was looking for, the quick rush of cyan-tinted magic revealing a short cloak-clad Moca.

Before I could even respond to any of this, she--

Ow.

She grabbed my wounded hand with both of hers, sternly concentrating a dim glow around it to slowly close the cut.

Letting go of me, she then de-transformed as fast as she'd transformed.

"Wait, that was the only cut, right~?" She dramatically attempted to look around me, even though there was nothing else for her to find.

Uh... What just happened? 

"No, I--..." I shook my head slowly. "That was the only wound, I'm pretty sure. But...thank you, Moca-chan."

I can't figure out how to comprehend what just happened.

Moca nodded in understanding, then raised her index finger to her lips to shush.

"You saw nothiiing~..." she tried to assure me, emphasizing it with another shush.

...That's her left hand. I don't see a Soul Gem ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That fourth wall break feels like something straight out of Be More Chill. Ha.
> 
> I think I tagged the trigger correctly...? This isn't something that would classify as a graphic depiction of violence, is it? I didn't think it was, since I don't go into detail about the wound, but there's no such thing as being too careful with triggers.
> 
> Speaking of the trigger: Aya, what did you hope to accomplish by literally running on a mirror? My god.
> 
> Moca is a radiant light in the middle of all of this neon, and I love it. I was wondering when she was going to finally show up.
> 
> It wasn't even going to be Moca, at first, but...


	18. It Has To Be!

There was something about slowly traversing through this maze with Moca, of all people, that just put me at ease.

I can't figure out why, though. Maybe it's because of how...calmly she's going about this, even though she just told me a little while ago that Ran was lost in here. Despite the risk of Ran getting in even more trouble, Moca's still as carefree as ever on the outside, like there's nothing wrong at all.

How could she possibly be so relaxed? I thought we were on a tight schedule here. Shouldn't we be picking up the pace a bit?

This is all too confusing. She's acting like this isn't even a witch's barrier. If Moca is, somehow without a Soul Gem ring, a magical girl, then I don't understand why she's out of that form, yet alone having us take our sweet time getting to Ran.

Hands stuffed in her pockets and slowly marching along in front of me, Moca was rambling on about whatever first came to mind, whether it involved food, her bandmates, or nonsensical things I'd never even heard of.

Of course, I had to be polite about it, even though I, internally, wanted to scream and run ahead of her out of impatience. I tried to keep the conversation going with her, but at some point, she stopped answering me entirely, as if she wasn't even talking to me in the first place, and kept continued her tangents to herself.

At some point, she went abnormally quiet, now officially mumbling everything to herself instead.

It was then that my eyes had started to wander, attempting to take in each and every detail possible. It was subconsciously, but I guess it's good to try and get familiar with this place on the off chance that I'm going to have to run for my life sometime soon.

The atmosphere honestly makes me feel like I'm heading to a rave, or if CiRCLE held a party and everyone left their glow sticks on the floor, for some odd reason. Then you'd just add a bunch of...creepy carnival mirrors.

I don't know. I don't think I've ever wanted to look at myself from this many different angles at once, and that's saying something.

...Oh, here's an idea.

"Hey, Moca-chan..." I gently tapped her on the shoulder. "Is anyone else here, that you know of?"

It's a pretty random thought, all things considered, but now that I think about it, I want to know which Moca this is.

Does she know that Himari is also here, or is the Himari I saw earlier not affiliated with this Moca?

Which Moca even is the magical girl? Are there even two Mocas, or was there always just one, and the two Tsugumis so close by each other earlier is messing with my head?

"Are you talking about Hii-chan~?" Moca guessed, pointing a finger to the sky for a moment. "I dunno where Hii-chan is~. Did you see her somewhere around here~?"

Eh... What?

It honestly feels like she's trying to keep something from me, but she doesn't know how to hide it completely. I'm lowkey getting the impression that she wants to tell me, but she can't or something...

Maybe I should just come out and say it. If I keep asking her a bunch of questions that only give me weird answers like this, then I'm never going to get anything out of her.

"Okay, uh..." I trailed off, bringing myself to a jog.

I stopped in front of Moca, causing her to stop walking and just...stare at me with that blank expression she always carried. It was like an idle animation for a video game, set on the most default setting possible.

"Lemme make this a little clearer. Did you text Hina-chan earlier?" I finally decided to question, probably on the verge of interrogation. "About all the magic stuff, and knowing that she knows about 'em? And if that wasn't you, do you know who it was?"

My hands waved in a fast gesture at my sides, probably as a side effect of all this anxiety wanting to get out of my system.

"A-And there's two Tsugumi-chans in the school! Two! Hina-chan and I talked to two Tsugumi-chans on the same floor--!"

Nope. Nope, my throat didn't like doing that. Now I'm completely out of breath. I had to stop bombarding Moca.

There was then a very, very long silence between us, with us both locked in a game of trying not to blink or move before the other person.

At least, that was what it felt like.

It seemed like ages had gone by before Moca came back to reality first, cracking her usual grin to accompany her trademark giggle.

"Can you keep a secret~?" she asked me in between those little laughs, eyebrows scrunching closer together in supposed worry.

...A secret? I was right about there being a secret going around?! I knew I couldn't have been imagining all of those shady things!

I eagerly nodded. Please fill me in, Moca! Please!

"Moca-chan told Hina-san to come here~..." she admitted, avoiding eye contact. "Moca-chan knows who's a magical girl because they were magical girls in Moca-chan's time~."

With a slow spin on her heel, Moca turned past me and went back to shuffling ahead in the same direction. I quickly turned around to follow behind her.

"Thiiis witch is a veeery scary one, she said~. Lisa-san told me to keep you safe, if you came down here~. But Moca-chan doesn't wanna keep everything a secret from you~."

Lisa? That means she's--

"Where Moca-chan's from~..." Moca paused for a moment. "Actually, I don't think I'm allowed to tell you this part~. Sorry~..."

A sharp turn around a corner didn't stop Moca from holding her arms out and spinning around it instead of just normally walking past.

"But something bad is coming veeery soon~. I wanna tell you what it is, but Lisa-san said it'd make things a looot worse~... But it's something that's gonna make you and a lotta other people reeeally upset~."

She stopped walking so fast, I almost ran right into her back.

"You're thinking of becoming a magical girl, aren't you, Aya-san~? You should get on that soon-. PasuRevo wouldn't be PasuRevo without you~..."

PasuRevo...? Like the...first single for Pastel*Palettes?

Huh. Pasupa Revolutions... PasuRevo... I think I like that. It actually sounds like a cool team name.

I think that's the only part of all of this that makes sense to me.

Moca's time? What does she mean by that? Now I'm really starting to think there's something shady going on behind the scenes.

But let's see... If I go off of the weird anime logic that we've been thrown into, then mentioning how things are in her time is--...

Oh my god. Moca's a time traveler.

It all makes sense now... Tomoe and the two Lisas, the two Tsugumis on the same floor, and even Moca spilling these secrets.

My brain is going nuts. Moca just opened up a whole bunch of possibilities with one conversation, and she's hardly even batting an eye.

"...You're from the future," I concluded. "And not just you, right? There's more people in on this?"

And as casual as could be, Moca nodded in confirmation.

"But you didn't hear anything from me, okay~?" She began to walk forward again. "To be honest~... Eh... I wasn't supposed to tell you any of this~. But I figured you'd wanna know something's coming, at least~."

Prepare me for what, though...? It's like she's trying to get me to figure out all these riddles on my own.

I mean, I'll definitely play along. Maybe there's more that she's not allowed to tell me, but would validate if I figured them out myself.

"So... Lemme see if I've got this down." I gestured in front of me, even though only I could see it. "You and...whoever else are magical girls from the future."

Moca nodded to that.

"And even though the others told you not to, you decided to warn me about some future stuff."

She nodded again.

"Warn only me...?"

Nod nod.

But why only me? Wouldn't Moca be better off telling Chisato about this? Literally what could I do to stop this? I'm not a--...

...I think I get it now.

"Are you trying to say...me becoming a magical girl would help stop...whatever's coming?"

Moca nodded once more.

"Why me, though?" I grabbed her shoulder in an attempt to slow her down to a stop, which kind of worked. "There has to be someone better suited for this than me."

Moca appeared to take my words to heart, head slightly shifting down a bit to look at the floor in thought.

"But~..." She let out a deep exhale. "But Moca-chan believes in you~. Moca-chan has seen you do your best, even if you don't think it's your best~."

Making me let go of her, Moca then shuffled around to look me dead in the eyes.

"In Moca-chan's time, you were a good magical girl~. Veeery good~. You helped a lot of people~."

How the heck could I--

"But you thought you couldn't help anyone~. Like~... Like you have to leave the fighting to everyone else~." She lightly poked my cheek, for some reason. "But eeeveryone has their good points~. Everyone~. There's things that only Moca-chan could do, and there's things that only you could do~."

...Wow. I think I'm tearing up.

Out of anyone that I would've expected to give me advice, Moca definitely never crossed my mind. That's probably because we hardly ever talk, if at all, but it still surprises me.

And she knew exactly what to say to me. I swear, it's like she's said this to someone before, or she's rehearsed it a whole bunch.

Moca smiled at me—in a way that only she could—and gave me a couple pats on the shoulder.

"PasuRevo wouldn't be complete without you, anyway~. Even if you're not up front, support-types are still important in teams~. Moca-chan should know~."

She should know? What does--

"I didn't lose Ran, by the way~..." Moca giggled. "She's up by the entrance~. You probably just missed her on the way here~. Moca-cha--"

There was a sharp scream—so ear-piercing, both of our reflexes were to cover our ears—from somewhere close by.

I think that was close by...? With all these mirrors, I feel like I've lost my sense of direction.

But I vaguely recognize that voice. I've never heard a scream from it before, but I've heard it at a normal volume just enough to have an idea who that was.

"Ran!" Moca quickly called out before grabbing my wrist mid-transformation and sprinting off ahead.

That actually was Ran?! I thought she was on the top floor!

Good thing we had decent shoes, or all of this stuff on the floor would be pretty--

"Whoa~!" Moca skidded to a halt, then whipped around to make sure I'd stopped as well.

What happened?! Let me see what's ahead of us!

I had to know. I just had to. I tried to peek over Moca's shoulder the best I could, tiptoeing a bit in place to keep my balance.

Directly in front of us was a massive crater. The mirrors around it were completely shattered, breaking the illusion of a mirror maze.

Spinning back around to lean over into the crater, Moca went back to calling out for Ran, each attempt sounding more and more desperate. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was in tea--

...Did I just see something move? It was out of the corner of my eye. I turned to try and find it, whatever it was.

Huh... That's strange. If there was something here, it's not here now.

But I'm certain I saw something. After all of...this, I highly doubt I'm just seeing things.

I began to turn back around. Maybe I should bring it up to Mo--

...Uh, Moca?

I still hear her...

Did she go down a floor? I don't see her down there, though, but it is pretty deep, from what I can make out.

Why would she leave me up here, though...? Moca even said we shouldn't be alone in here. Why would she just go back on that now?

"Moca-chan?!" I yelled down into the crater. "Moca-chan! Where did you go?!"

...But she didn't reply. As a matter of fact, her voice was getting quieter and quieter, indicating she was getting farther away from me.

What should I do...? Does she know I'm still up here, or was she too far away to hear me say that? Did she want me to head down there with her? What if--

And there's another shriek. That voice being at such a volume was completely foreign to my ears, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

"Moca-chan--!" I screamed back, my eyes immediately filling with tears as my hands cupped over my mouth.

Oh my god. Oh my god, this is bad. This is very, very bad.

Why is this happening?! Those two are clearly in danger, and I'm up here with no way to get to them, yet alone help them!

There's nothing I could do here, is there? I ca--

"Do you want to save them?"

I know that voice. I'd be quite the fool if I didn't know that voice by now.

A paw tapped my ankle, prompting me to turn around and greet Kyuubey.

"You know you can," it reminded me. "And I'm more than willing to help you accomplish that."

That's right... Moca even said future me was a good magical girl. I could save her and Ran in a heartbeat, I bet.

I took a step back so I could crouch down for Kyuubey to get t--

Oh, shoot.

I lost my footing entirely, sending me backwards into the crater.

No no no no no! Not now! Please not now! I can't get lucky with these falls twice in one day!

I held my hands out to Kyuubey, which led it to jump in after me, its appendages aimed right at my chest.

This is it. I don't know what future me wished for, but I don't care. This is the present, and present Aya knows exactly what to do.

"Please...! Please help me find them!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Hooooly shit._ It's begun. I've been waiting for this since the start. God, it feels good to have actually taken my time to get to this plot point. I love it.
> 
> Thank you, Moca, for being the reliable memelord we all need. You're a damn inspiration. Please stick around longer. Or give us present Moca. That works, too.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~Tsunagu, Soramoyou. It's killed me. I don't even have the MV unlocked yet, but it's killed me. I can't wait until HaroHapi gets a MV.~~
> 
>  
> 
> There's multiple ways this could go. That's just the fun of fully planning some portions, but not others. I think NaNoWriMo calls this a...plantser? Hm.
> 
> I don't know. I'm excited.


	19. It Definitely Is...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: glass wounds/shards, blood/bleeding

The whole thing felt so surreal, like I was going through the motions of a fever dream. I'm not even sure if my brain knew how to process it.

But if it registered anything, it was that something was pulled out of my chest. I guess it kind of hurt...? It didn't last long, though, so that's good...whatever it was. But now that I think about it, that might just be the adrenaline.

"The contract is now complete!" Kyuubey declared, its eyes still focused on me with the intention of never blinking. "Now, go forth!"

Oh, yeah... The Soul Gem. There it is, a pastel pink egg shape falling down this crater with me.

\-- Wait. I'm falling.

I reached for the Soul Gem and clasped it with both hands, fully prepares to use it immediately.

That is, if I can figure out how. Maya just had to think about transforming, right? If it's really that easy, then this shouldn't be too--

Clockwork allowed a warm feeling to envelop me, a short burst of pink light and sparkles bringing about my magical girl form.

As the magic faded away, I briefly saw my outfit—cute, but practical, just like what an idol would wear—before realizing just how close I was to the ground.

Oh, god. If I hit that directly at this speed, I'm definitely going to die.

Come on, come on, come on! I can't die here! If I have to imagine transforming to be able to transform, can I imagine landing safely so I don't crash?!

Please don't die... Please don't die... Please do--

...Am I slowing down? I feel like I'm slowing down. How the heck am I doing that?

The momentum already had my legs going over my head, so I tried to finish the backflip motion in hopes I'd land on my...

...feet. Softly, like nothing had even happened.

Hey... Do I have wings or something? I tried to look at my back, but I could only catch the remnants of some kind of lighter pink fading away into glitter and falling to the floor.

I just survived a fall that should've killed me instantly upon impact. That is cool.

Kyuubey soon landed partially on me, pawing at the back of my head to try and get on top of it. I picked it up and placed it on my shoulder instead.

"Could I just...imagine wanting to look for them?" I mumbled to myself, scanning the area. "Is that how it works...?"

There was a massive slab of stone in the middle of the room, partially in the ground. That's what made this crater, I bet.

But where did Ran and Moca go...? I wasn't falling for that long, was I? I--

"Your magic is associated with your wish," Kyuubey confirmed, its face looking past the mess of stone and down towards the next hall of mirrors.

I mean, I figured, but assumptions won't get me anywhere when there's lives on the line. I need to get a move on.

"So, that means..." I held up my hands to concentrate on my palms, hoping it'd give me something to help me do this with.

Come on... I'll take anything right now, as long as it helps me find them. Even if it's something super impractical, as long as I don't mess this up, I really don't care...

Oh, hello. My hands are glowing, the fingerless gloves being tinted a soft pink by the warm magic forming.

This works. I have no clue how it's going to work, but it will. I'll make sure it works.

It almost reminds me of some kind of fire magic... Do I have fire magic? Maybe I could use it as a flare of some sort.

But where could I fire it...? And with what? How does this even--...

Well, we're already spitballing pretty hard here. Maybe I could just let my arms do whatever they feel like, and something useful happens. If that's how this whole thing works, then we'd be pulling stuff straight out of anime again, so why not?

I figured, with whatever enhancements I probably have right now, I could fire this off myself. Maybe, if I show myself that I actually need my weapon, it'll pop out and help me fire. I have to figure out what kind of weapon I have, anyway.

So I tossed both blobs of fire up in the air and held my hands as if I was holding something to hit them with.

To be honest, even if this doesn't solve anything and I have to actually run around to find them, at least I'll know how to become a human flare without spontaneously combusting, if need be.

I honestly don't know what I was expecting to happen, but swinging at the fire as it came back down actually sent it flying. Whatever was in my hands for that brief moment was gone now, for some reason.

At least, that's what I think happened. I closed my eyes right before, like an idiot. Booooo.

...

Did that just...work? Did that actually work? I ope--

And then it finally hit me. In a rush of adrenaline, my line of vision quickly shifted to a bird's eye view. It felt like I'd gone out of bounds in a video game, even though I could see Kyuubey and I at the beginning of this maze thing...

Wait. I can see myself?!

Oh my god. Oh my god, this is an out of body experience. I'm hallucinating. I'm hallucinating, and any moment now, I'm going to start screaming. I know I will.

But as long as I can see all of this, maybe I can find Ran and Moca. I can't forget about them. I just need to start scanning the direction Moca might have gone...

Oh, whoa. Hello. There they are. They're actually not too far away, but far away enough that I wouldn't have been able to find them for quite a while.

Down a few twists and turns was Moca, blocking an attack from a cloaked...thing with what kind of looks like a jester's mask.

Whatever it is, it's huge, and Moca's trying her hardest to stay in one spot, considering there's an unconscious Ran behind her.

An unconscious Ran. Oh, shoot.

I need to get over there! I don't know how long Moca can hold that thing back, but I'm not about to stand around and find out.

Reflexively shaking my head seemed to bring my sight back to where it should be, so I dashed off ahead, hoping to the heavens I wasn't too late. Kyuubey was holding onto my shoulder for dear life, but I wasn't worried about that right now.

"Moca-chan!" I called out ahead. "Moca-chan, are y--"

"Don't!" Moca screamed back. She sounded frantic, even with a crack in her voice.

She's probably saying that because she doesn't want me to get hurt, since she doesn't know what I did yet... That's super sweet.

Thank you, Moca, but I can promise you I'll be just fine.

As soon as she said that, though, my senses kicked in. I don't know what it was, exactly, but it sped my legs up and directed me right to the two of them.

...Wow. Kyuubey spent no time deciding how literal my magic should be.

My footsteps approaching told Moca I was near, so her head whipped towards me in shock.

Now she was almost doubled over, out of breath as her hand clasped over her forearm to heal what looked like a gash. There was a glowing dagger in her free hand.

The witch was also gone, unfortunately. Weird.

She slowly scanned me from top to bottom before chuckling. It sounded kind of forced.

"Thank you, Aya-san~..." She stumbled back a step, legs visibly shaking. "I wish I could...help you take it down, but~..."

I ran over to Moca with the intent to catch her if she ended up falling.. Kyuubey had hopped off of my shoulder and darted over to Ran.

"You two need to rest..." I pleaded, my eyes shifting to Ran for a bit.

She looked pretty beat up, but there's always the chance that she was a lot worse off before Moca found her. There's no telling, really, just how much Moca healed before I got here.

"But what happened, anyway?" I looked back to Moca. "Things look really bad..."

And it definitely wasn't an exaggeration. Getting a decent enough look at Moca in this lighting, I could see just how cut up she was. There were small scrapes here and there, but quite a few wounds that were inflicted by glass.

"I guess the witch found Ran..." Moca slowly turned around to her unconscious friend. "I found it down here with her. The two of 'em were going at it pretty hard, but Ran went down fast after I got here..."

She shuffled over to her the best she could and knelt down by Ran's head, gently brushing stray strands of hair away from her face.

"I gotta stay here with Ran. I wish I could help you, I really do, but..."

Even if Moca'd offered to help me, I'd have to decline. The least amount of danger these two have to be in, the better.

"I'll be fine!" I tried to reassure her. "Besides, Himari-chan and Kaoru-san should be close by, right?"

Moca paused for a few moments, probably to consider if that's true or not, then nodded.

I nodded in response, then focused on my hands again.

You know, brain, or whatever controls this magic that I'm pointlessly talking to right now, it'd be really nice to be able to use that flare thing again. It was freaky, yeah, but it was just as useful. Ple--

And just like that, my vision rose to a top-down view again.

...I think I can get used to this.

Let's see... Hopefully they're on this level of the barrier, 'cause I doubt this is overpowered enough to let me see more than this.

...

And they're nowhere to be seen. Great. They're on another level, aren't they?

But I do see the witch. It's actually around the next corner, slowly making its way away from us.

Not for long.

Shaking my head to bring myself back to reality, I let out a sigh.

"I can't find them..." I admitted, thoroughly disappointed.

Moca seemed more confused than disappointed, eyebrows furrowing at me with a small pout.

"Really?" She sounded like she couldn't believe it. "Maybe they're looking for the witch..."

They probably are, but with how close by it is, I'm not going to go out of my way to look for them. Not when there's wounded people closer to it.

So, with a slow nod, I began the march to where the witch should be.

I don't know where I'm getting all this confidence, but I'm going to take it, and I'm going to run with it until it loses feeling in its legs from running for so long.

But I know I need a weapon. I don't know why it hasn't shown up yet, but it's worrying me. I have a weapon, right? Please tell me I have a weapon.

Come on. Everything else has shown up the same way. Do I have to think about wanting my weapon for it to appear in my hand?

Even though I'm going into this fight blind and pretty much defenseless, I don't want to make it seem like that, so I kept marching. No matter what happens, I have to keep moving until I find that wi--

Huh... My right hand warmed up for a brief moment.

As soon as I was out of Moca's sight, I glanced down to see what kind of weapon I go--

...It's a microphone.

What the heck. I could've gotten literally anything else, but it had to be a microphone. It could've been a cool gun that shoots lasers, or even a simple bow and arrow, but nooo. It had to be a micropho--

I could see it out of the corner of my eye: a mirror had something moving, something swirling about and getting ready to--

There was next to no time to turn around and block, but I barely managed, raising the microphone barely keep the oncoming glass shards of the witch from slicing right through me.

You know what? I'm starting to think, if I actually pay attention to those shards long enough, they're going to start forming faces.

But oh, god. Oh, god god god god god. I'm gonna die. I'm definitely gonna die.

How am I holding this thing back?! It's twice--no, three times my height! Not to mention it's reeeeally close to stabbing me. Reeeeeeeally close.

I need to get away from here. I don't know how long I can keep it from hurting me, but I'm not planning on finding out!

But how?! How do I do this?!

"Get... Get back!" I shrieked, reflexively closing my eyes to brace myself against any potential backlash it could throw at me.

Get back, get back, get back, get ba--

What followed was nothing short of confusion: a garbled screech over a microphone's audio feedback threatening to break eardrums. Any force pushing against me then shoved itself away.

...What?

I opened my eyes to find the witch slinking back into the mirror at high speeds.

Did I do that? I think I did that. 

"Oh, no, you don't!" I rushed at the mirror, the bottom of the microphone aimed at it with the intent to smash it.

It actually wasn't that hard to do, but that might've been because I was practically throwing myself at it. It was a wonder I didn't cut myself that bad on it.

Oh, wait. Ow. That bounced against my leg pretty badly.

But I can't stop there! If I let this thing get away, it could circle back and hurt the others!

I can see the witch trying to slip away from me through the mirrors. If I smash them all, it has to come out and actually face me, right?!

This has been dragging on for far too long. I can't let it get back to the othe--

...Oh. The end of the microphone grew into some kind of...sword.

Well, I can't complain about how stupid my weapon is now, even though the microphone part still seems really impractical. I flipped it around so the microphone portion of the weapon could function as the sword's handle.

I feel like I just became Eve, but let's go.

Even if I didn't see the witch in it, which was the case for almost every one I came across, I jammed the sword into the mirror. I refuse to double back and try to catch this stupid thing again, if I happen to leave an opening for it to escape me.

It's just me this time. No Chisato to protect me, no Hina to save me, no Maya or Eve to support me. I have to do this myself, whether I like it or not.

And if I don't, someone's going to pay the price.

I knew there was something in my leg, but I was ignoring it. Whatever it was could wait until I fini--

There it is! It made its way to a dead end, its cracking jester mask staring back at me from the far end of the circular room.

Mirrors lining the walls meant it could easily slip past me, but if it even dared, I was going to literally throw myself at it, so it better not try to leave.

"You've caused a lotta trouble today!" I declared before pointing the blade at it. "But no more!"

That...actually didn't sound completely stupid. Sweet.

I didn't expect it to understand me, but we were kind of in this weird...staring contest for a while.

Like, a long while.

An uncomfortably long while.

I think I'm getting nervous. Ew.

Well, if we're just going to be standing here, then I'll--

Oh. Oh, here it comes. Oh, god. As soon as I started heading towards a mirror, it lunged at me. Oh, god.

The only thing I could think of doing on such a short notice was jumping out of the way, which...'kinda worked.

And by 'kinda worked, I mean 'kinda tripped over my own feet and fell. Great.

I apparently angered it, though, because it flung up its cloak to reveal just how many glass shards it had picked up in its travels around its barrier.

Oh.

Get up. Oh, god, get up.

I scrambled to my feet just in time to barely miss a barrage of glass aimed at probably my head or my torso.

Oh, god god god--

But it kept coming, following me as I sprinted around the roo--

Oh my god. There's no exit anymore. I'm stuck in here for good.

Wait, don't cry! Why are you crying?! You can do this! There has to be something you could do to finish this off!

The only thing I could think of was to try and throw that flare thing at it. I know it's supposed to help me navigate, but it's literally fire, so it has to have some kind of effect against it, right?!

I had to try it. Even if it doesn't do anything to it, at least I'll know for future battles. I tossed the sword thing into one hand and formed another ball of fire.

Come on... Give me a good opening! I need a--

There! I stopped for a quick moment to chuck the fire at it as hard as I could.

I definitely caught it off-guard with such a sudden attack, its cloak slamming itself back down to attempt to smother the flame.

But nothing it did seemed to work, the cloak quickly being consumed. The witch's cries were well-deserved as its mask shattered and fell to the floor, finally revealing its empty abyss of a face.

I'm assuming this is my chance.

A few steps back let me give myself the momentum to kick off and jump upward just high enough to be at a height where I could drive the sword into its lack of a face.

Its screaming then got even louder and much more chaotic-sounding, so I think whatever I just did was working. I decided to drive the sword farther i--

Oh, hello. It poofed. It was the same kind of black smoke that I saw when Chisato killed that witch, so...

My god. I think I just did it. I think I just killed a witch.

Sure enough, the witch's disappearance brought me back to reality, the mirror maze swirling back into the empty Haneoka classroom it initially was.

Well, at least I'm not crying anymore.

I landed on the ground with a soft tap and looked around the room.

"Whoa~..." Moca, in the corner by the supply closet, had the unconscious Ran's head on her lap. "That must've been really cool, Aya-san~..."

"What?" Kaoru, more towards the window, was frantically looking around the room in complete shock. "Where did it go? What just happened?!"

Himari was next to Kaoru, shrugging. She was smiling, though.

A very, very tired-looking Tomoe was leaning against the wall adjacent to Himari and Kaoru.

"Is it over...?" she panted, sounding ridiculously distressed. "I don't think I can do anymore today. That was quite a bit of magic, guys..."

Before I could reply to any of them, there was a tap on my shoulder, so I spun around on my heel to see its source.

"You can share this with the others," Tsugumi explained to me, holding a Grief Seed—adorned with a silver circus tent on the top, followed by its swirling middle—out for me to take.

Oh, yeah. I need to keep my magic at a good level.

"Thank you..." I accepted the Grief Seed with a smile before turning back arou--

"Is everyone okay?"

Uh--

Lisa ran right past me and over to Ran and Moca, hopping down to a crouch.

"What happened?!" she begged, audibly worried. "Moca, I'm so sorry! Are you two okay?! Maybe I should've been the distra--"

Moca slowly held up her hand to shush Lisa. She didn't seem all that bothered, now that the witch had been taken care of.

"We're fiiine~." She then pointed at me. "See for yourself~."

Lisa then jumped back up and twirled around to look at me. As soon as she registered what I'd done, she ran back over to me.

Though that might have been because I haven't figured out how to de-transform yet.

"Hey, look at you!" She took my sword-wielding hand and held it with both of hers, causing the blade to fall and de-materialize as soon as it hit the ground. "I'm super proud of you!"

...To be honest, her happiness feels really forced, for once. Should I be worried, Lisa?

"Thanks, Lisa-chan," I decided to respond to, even though this whole encounter was making me feel super weird.

"It's cool, huh?" she beamed. "We're like superheroes! Helping people out and saving the day!"

Should I be nodding to that? I slowly did, just in case.

This conversation feels very out of place, considering how beat up Ran and Moca a--

"Aya-chan?!"

Hina bolted into my view immediately, causing Lisa to let go of my hand and step back over to the wounded duo.

"Yooo!" Hina saw the Grief Seed in my hand and lit right up. "You contracted! Nice!"

That's right... We can all be a full team now. I don't have to hold everyone back.

Just the thought of being able to help everyone out now made my eyes water again.

"Hina-chan..." I couldn't help but hug her tightly, resting my chin against her shoulder.

Now that I'm coming down from the adrenaline rush, I think what it is that I did in that barrier has finally started to sink in.

I have another side of myself now that I never dreamed of having someday, and it comes with a lot of other potential consequences. If I mess up, someone else besides me could very easily take the fall.

And it's painful, almost suffocating to consider. Because of me, someone could get really hurt someday because of this.

But I'm not doing this alone. I never was. I know that for a fact. We all have each other's backs, like we always have.

PasuRevo, as of today, finally has their 5th member.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried my damned hardest not to write this chapter while I was sick. At the time of typing up this portion of the notes, I'm towards the beginning-ish of the chapter, but my cold is finally subsiding. Woooohoohoohoo...
> 
> ...Ahem. I made a Twitter and Tellonym so I can talk to all of you, if you want:
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pastel_Magica?s=09  
> Tellonym: tellonym.me/noctaliza
> 
> I made both of these on a whim one night when my brain wasn't fully working. I think I'm content with both of these, to be honest. There's concept art of some magical girl outfits (including me complaining about how many times I've changed Chisato's) on the Twitter, so that's fun.
> 
> Also, I have literally no idea how Tellonym works. I just know people use it all the time. But if you want to ask me for clarification on choices I've made in the fic/details I haven't touched on, or if you just want to send me memes, now you can. I definitely enjoy a good meme.
> 
> Also also, in the middle of my sick daze, I jumped on the "interactive Bandori Twitter story" bandwagon. It's mostly from Lisa's perspective, and covers a timeline that her and her team would've been in previously. Since it's an old timeline, it could go completely different, compared to how AO3's timeline is going. It already kind of is.
> 
> And now I'm not sick anymore! Sweet.
> 
> Anyways, sorry for taking so long to get this one up. The next chapter is already being written, so we shouldn't be too far off from the next upload.


	20. And I'm Ready

We'd all gone our separate ways not too long after. Whoever could manage to carry someone did, and whoever couldn't leaned on someone that could.

I ended up giving the Grief Seed to Moca and Ran, though. After I used it, of course. With everything that went down, those two needed it a lot more than I did.

Moca healed my wounds, even after we were all okay. I had to repay her somehow, right? She didn't want me to, but I couldn't bear not giving her something as thanks.

But before Hina and I left to join up with Chisato and the others, I figured it was about time I tried to get some answers.

Lisa confirmed that her and those in Afterglow were from another timeline entirely. To tell if it was them and not those from our timeline, apparently the Lisa and Afterglow members in our timeline weren't magical girls yet.

Yet. She made it a point to say yet, for some reason.

She wouldn't explain why they were all here, but there was quite a bit of information she was comfortable giving us. It surprised me, considering how sensitive of a topic time travel is to begin with. Can't talking about timelines destroy timelines, or am I just thinking into this too much?

Roseglow—a combination of Roselia and Afterglow, for the sake of convenience—has been working in the shadows to make sure this timeline went as smoothly as possible. Hina and I weren't allowed to know what they were trying so hard to prevent, though.

This last witch, however, was a surprise to all of them. According to Himari, this witch wasn't in Haneoka in the last timeline. PasuRevo was also the one to take it down last time.

Moca, already half asleep with Ran on her back, softly whispered to me how she knew about PasuRevo: I was the one to come up with it, shortly after I'd become a magical girl. Apparently that was during this last witch.

Lisa had informed Moca of it at some point during the last timeline 

I came up with it, huh... I can kind of see that. It sounds like my kind of idea, if I took a few months to debate telling it to everyone.

Since none of them had experience with this witch the last time around, no one knew it could travel through mirrors. Because of this, it found an opening, left Himari and Kaoru's sight, and went up to the top floor to scare Ran out of hiding and slam her through the floors.

According to Tomoe, at least. This barrier was apparently pretty complex to navigate, but I never would've seen that, since I fell through the stupid floors almost right after I got in the barrier.

Tomoe managed to simplify quite a few things around me, though, so I completely missed that headache on purpose. Why this was intentional still confuses me.

Oh, yeah... Tomoe can cast illusions. Her magic was only strong enough to mess with my surroundings for so long because Ran was amplifying her magic. So once Ran was taken out, everything broke apart: not being able to see Moca's Soul Gem ring, not coming across anyone in the barrier until I ran into Moca, etc.

No one expected me to make a contract here, either, but they're all glad I did. I still didn't understand why, but all of Roseglow was confident in my ability to do well.

That was definitely a relief. Even though Moca had told me future me was a good magical girl, it felt very good to hear the same thing from five other people, especially people I was familiar with.

In order to avoid running into the versions of themselves in the present, Roseglow ran off in the other direction as soon as we all got back out in Haneoka's hallways. Apparently Lisa and Tomoe had a way to get them all out of the school without causing a scene, so they both got out their Soul Gems and ran ahead of the other four.

...You know, I think I have an idea how those two disappeared last night.

With nowhere else in mind that she should go, Kaoru followed Hina and I out to the front entrance of the school.

"Say, my dear kittens..." She leaned in a bit between us as we walked along. "Are you going to see Chisato at any point today?"

"Chisato-chan?" Hina nodded. "Yeah! We're gonna meet up with her right now."

"Did you need her for something?" I wondered, keeping my eyes on the path ahead.

But instead of giving a reply, Kaoru's phone went off, a dramatic fanfare of horns and whatever else telling her to check her texts.

"Hm... I wanted to see my princess, but..." She locked her phone again and slipped it back in her pants pocket. "It seems my services are required elsewhere. But will you please send her my regards?"

Princess...? Is that--

She then jogged ahead of us to twirl around, bow, and twirl back around to leave the two of us.

That was...odd, but this is Kaoru we're talking about here. Kaoru takes the odd and makes it perfectly okay.

"Princess, huh?" Hina mused. "Chisato-chan's her princess? That's actually really cute!"

I had to nod to that. To be honest, calling someone a princess, even if you've known them since you were kids, is probably something only Kaoru could get away with without getting slapped in the face. I be--

Oh, now my purse is vibrating. Who the heck is texting me? I do--

It's a...call, not a text. One swipe unlocked my phone so I could bring the now answered call to my ear.

"Hello?" I tried to greet them with.

...But there was no answer. There was a bit of whimpering, though, from what I could make out. Some very, very soft whimpering.

Now I'm just getting nervous. How am I supposed to respond to this...? Who am I even talking to, anyway?

I opened my mouth to tell them I didn't understand what they were saying, but they...hung up.

The heck?

"Well, that was weird..." I pulled my phone away from my ear to get a better look at who called me.

I don't even have this number in my phone, but it doesn't look like one of those fake numbers people mess around with when they make prank calls. Actually, it has this city's area code. That's what makes it even weirder.

Well, I know my number hasn't been leaked onto social media. I don't even have to look online to know my number's safe, because someone would've let me know about that by now.

So that means this has to be someone that knows me. But who has my number when I don't have theirs...?

"Who was that?" Hina asked, leaning in a bit as we walked to see my phone's screen.

"I...don't know," I softly admitted.

And here I thought Roseglow was the full explanation for what I was looking for. Now I'm starting to think they might just be the tip of the icebe--

Oh... A text.

And it's yet another number that I don't recognize. Greeeat. It also has this city's area code, but that doesn't explain two numbers that I don't know, contacting me back to back.

"SOS! Grief Seed about to hatch @ CiRCLE! Please help us, PasuRevo!"

PasuRevo...

"Hey, I just got that, too!" Hina showed me her phone's screen for a couple seconds. "And it looks like Chisato-chan, Maya-chan, and Eve-chan got this, too! Are we all PasuRevo?!"

Whoever this is, they know of PasuRevo. Only Roseglow should know about that. But I have all of their numbers in my contacts. There's no way this is someone in Roseglow.

But who could it be...? Two numbers that know mine, but I don't know theirs. And here I thought I wouldn't have this problem, when it came to people I knew. Whose numbers do I not have?

"What do you think, though?" I decided to ask Hina, locking my phone so I could slide it back in my purse. "Of PasuRevo. Does it sound like a good team name for us?"

I was going to bring it up when we met up with everyone else, but if it's being mentioned now, then I might as well join in.

"I think it's cute!" Hina nodded in consideration. "Is it based off of one of our songs?"

You took the words right out of my mouth, Hina. I nodded back.

~ * ~

Questions aside, we knew we had to hurry. We weren't too far from CiRCLE, but we were far enough to where we had to run. If only it was dark out, then we could probably transform and travel along the rooftops. But that was definitely out of the question in broad daylight.

Hina and I made it just in time to catch Chisato holding the door open for Maya and Eve to head inside the live house.

"Oh!" Chisato was the first to notice us approaching, her phone in her free hand. "You got the text, too, Hina-chan?"

"We both did!" Hina corrected as we both slipped inside, Chisato closing the door behind us all. "Aya-chan and I!"

Chisato seemed confused by that comment, but the expression faded as she shifted her eyes to the Soul Gem ring on my hand.

"I see you found a reason to join in," she noted, giving me her signature warm smile. "I'm proud of you."

A small giggle escaped me. You're gonna make me blush, Chisato. Thank you.

"Is something wrong?" I heard from behind the counter. "You all look like you've seen a ghost..."

The voice belonged to Marina, who was leaning over the counter with a concerned gaze. She could easily sense our predicament, it seemed.

Chisato approached the counter, already far ahead of the rest of us in terms of figuring out what to do.

"Marina-san, please evacuate the live house!" she commanded. "Everyone here is in danger!"

"Oh my!" Marina was visibly taken aback. "Is everything okay? What's going on, so I can let everyone know?!"

"We can't explain it right now..." Chisato shook her head, dodging the question. "But I promise we will later! Just... Please!"

The two of them stared each other down afterwards, both on their own levels of concern.

Neither of them wanted to see anyone get hurt, but just telling an adult that they have to evacuate their business seems really...weird. I can't see this actually working...

Eventually, Marina sighed.

"As long as you'll explain this afterwards." She reached behind the counter for a moment, then held up her set of keys for Chisato to take. "I trust you five. Whatever's happening, please take care of it."

Once Chisato accepted the keys, Marina hopped over the counter and jogged to the front door, but stopped before she began to lift up her hand to open it.

"There are others coming to the studio soon for practice..." she mentioned, almost under her breath. "Please keep them safe."

Before any of us could try to reassure her that we'd take care of this, Marina opened the door and left.

Chisato promptly locked the door behind her, then jogged back over to us to place the keys on the counter.

"I guess we're lucky that no one's here, huh?" Maya let out a sigh of relief. "No other bands?"

"Though I'm surprised Haruka-san isn't here..." Chisato turned back to us. "I hope she's just on a supplies run."

Oh, yeah... Haruka. Haruka...Tachibana, I think? The staff member that got all the other bands together. I really hope she's not here right now...

"Haruka-san has to be okay!" Eve insisted, practically fist pumping the air in front of her. "We'll make sure of it!"

"That's--... That's right!" I chimed in with. "Five magical girls? We can definitely do this!"

"Wait, five?!" Maya immediately went looking for my Soul Gem ring, her face lighting up as soon as she found it. "Aya-san! You're a magical girl now!"

"Congratulations, Aya-san!" Eve cheered, almost singing that line of praise.

Before anyone else could add onto this, Chisato stepped in between us all, her expression falling into a rather serious gaze.

"We can celebrate after this witch is taken care of," she urged before beginning her stride towards the studio's door.

"Aw, yeah!" Hina followed after Chisato with a skip in her step. "PasuRevo isn't complete without Aya-chan, but we still gotta make a name for ourselves! PasuRevo can't be PasuRevo without savin' the day!"

"You like it, too, Hina-san?" Eve asked as she joined the other two at the door.

"Definitely!" Hina then hummed a piece of the chorus of Pasupa Revolutions, the biggest grin on her face.

"It fits us!" Maya agreed with a cheer, following after to join in the humming session.

Chisato nodded along to the tune after Eve added to the humming, but didn't hum it herself.

PasuRevo isn't complete without me... I'm flattered. It reminds me of what Moca said...

"Aya-chan?" Chisato called back to me, noticing I wasn't moving. "Are you coming?"

"Oh, yeah!" I ran after everyone. "Sorry."

Chisato looked like she wanted to say something to me, perhaps give me a lecture for spacing out when things are this serious, but she brushed that thought aside to turn back to the studio door.

She aimed to open it as slow as she could, but as she got the chance to peek inside for a bit, she threw it open instead.

"It's not here?" She calmly stepped inside, looking around the room as confused as could be.

Peeking inside myself, the studio looked exactly how it always did, though its emptiness did feel kind of unsettling, considering the situation.

Chisato, taking out her Soul Gem from its ring form, then held it above her head for a few moments.

"I'm not getting anything..." She tilted her head a little towards us. "Maya-chan? Do you get anything?"

Maya immediately sprung into action, summoning her Soul Gem and quicky holding it up in the air.

Chisato then walked over to Maya, squinting at the mint-tinted gem.

"This is weird..." She lightly pushed past Maya and the rest of us to make her way out of the studio and to the stairs.

"We're not getting pranked, are we?" Hina wondered, jogging after Chisato after grabbing my arm.

Oh, uh--

"Should we split up to look for it?" I could hear Eve suggest.

"I don't think that'll be a good idea,"! Chisato sternly rejected. "For someone to know we're all magical girls, they have to have connections. We need to be careful."

Oh, Chisato, you're going to flip when you realize this isn't Roseglow's doing.

~ * ~

Even though we've gone down these stairs to the stage plenty of times, this time felt...different, maybe even a little uncomfortable. There was something kind of eerie about doing this when we were the only ones in the live house...

"Oh!" Maya exclaimed once we were halfway down. "I'm starting to get something!"

I peeked over Maya's shoulder to see the minty tint of her Soul Gem beginning to illuminate the stairs somehow more than they already were.

"So it's down here..." Chisato then picked up the pace, almost hopping down the stairs.

In the middle of that journey, she decided to transform, the pastel yellow magic fully brightening up the way for us for a few moments before she landed at the bottom of the stairs with ease.

Oh, uh... Should I be doing that, too?

Eve definitely jumped on that bandwagon, quickly getting her Soul Gem out so she could transform and zip down to Chisato. Hina simultaneously followed suit with a giggle.

"But why did it not show up until now...?" Maya was looking at the steps in wonder. "We should've gotten a bit of this while we were upstairs."

"Yeah?" I sped up a bit to join her around the same step. "When does this 'kinda stuff usually show up?"

"Chisato-san showed it to us earlier today... We probably could've seen this before we even got on the same block that CiRCLE's on." She looked like she was pouting. "This is weird..."

This really is weird. A witch in CiRCLE? Someone other than Roseglow knowing about PasuRevo? The witch hardly having any trace of magic to follow?

I don't like this. I don't like this at all. I'm getting a very bad feeling...

Once we all made it to the bottom, Maya and I apparently thought it would be a good idea to transform at the same time.

That wasn't planned, I swear.

"There's only two places this witch can be down here, I'm pretty sure..." Chisato noted with an index finger in the air. "It's either backstage, or on the stage itself. Who wants to check where first?"

Hina's hand immediately shot up.

"I bet it's backstage!" she guessed. "Let's check backstage!"

There seemed to be a mutual nod among the rest of us, though that might have been because we were all eager to check somewhere that might give us a lead.

We began to follow after Chisato, who decided to go on ahea--

...Hina?

I noticed Hina wasn't close by me anymore, so I turned around to check on her.

She had her eyes on the stage door with an unusual air of concern. It was the entrance people usually went through to watch the lives themselves.

"Hina-chan?" I jogged back over to her to nudge her shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

As soon as I touched her, her head shot back towards the others up ahead, as if nothing even happened.

"I-I think it's this way!"she yelled, the voice cracks making this moment even more unusual.

Chisato stopped and turned around in confusion, then Eve and Maya did the same.

"I thought you--..." Chisato began, but shook her head and led the others back to us.

After taking a confused glance at Hina, Chisato carefully opened the door leading to the stage and stepped inside.

"I feel it..." Chisato verified, motioning the rest of us to follow her inside. "It's definitely here."

"Yeah...?" I waited until everyone else was inside before I joined them.

Chisato nodded, materializing her spear as she went towards the stage. The blade fully came into reality after she'd jumped up onto the stage.

And with a swift kick to the end of her weapon, Chisato flipped it around and stabbed in into the floor for a bit before slicing on through, revealing the magic hiding just underneath.

It was almost like she'd unleashed the gates of Hell—flames ripping through the stage, beginning to make the whole thing crumble—upon the live house, and she wasn't even bothered by it was she looked back to us in pure seriousness.

"PasuRevo, right? That's what they said?" She tapped the blunt end of her spear against the ground. "Well! PasuRevo! Let's get this show on the road!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, yes... Haruka Tachibana. Haruka-san. Pastel*Lesbians-san.  
>  ~~I gave the player character a name/face. Whoops.~~  
>  Haruka's probably outside the live house, trying to get a really anxious Marina to sit down and have some coffee. Someone please help Marina.
> 
> Ahem! I've been informed that AskFM is a load of shit and doesn't let you ask things unless you have an account, so I killed that account and made a Tellonym instead. Feel free to ask me for clarification on anything or just ask me stuff you're wondering about the fic: https://tellonym.me/noctaliza
> 
> I'm hyped. This is definitely one of the first plot points I originally planned.  
> We finally solved most of Roseglow's involvement, then we have more new faces that know too much. It's the tip of the iceberg, for sure.


	21. But Not For This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Major Character Death

Jumping down into the rift Chisato revealed brought us all onto the most fast-paced train I'd ever seen. I'm surprised I stuck the landing at all, with the ground so shaky.

Maya immediately gripped one of the seats for dear life, knees almost buckling from the lack of balance she had.

"Chi--... Chisato-san!" she stammered, barely keeping herself standing. "Is this a normal thing?! This is crazy!"

"Yeah, how are we supposed t--" I lost my balance mid-sentence, falling backwards with a strong thud. Ow.

Something this fast is going to be very difficult to navigate. I don't know how we can do this, if two of us are already having so much trouble.

"What if we fight speed with speed?" Eve suggested, somehow not even bothered by how fast we were going. "We can give it a taste of its own medicine!"

"That's gonna make us crash!" Maya shrieked in a panic.

Chisato, surprisingly standing perfectly still in all this mess, seemed to be deep in thought, her eyes focused on the rickety wood at our feet.

"Chisato-san?!" Maya frantically repeated. "Chisato-san, please! What should we do?!"

She eventually came to, her gaze shooting back up to a normal level so she could see ahead of us--a regular ol' train car, lined along both walls with posters that're ripped to various degrees of shreds--clearly.

"Getting to the end of this as quickly as possible is probably going to be the safest bet..." she agreed, adjusting her grip on her spear. "If we knew what was at the end, that is. Barriers are linear, but we still have to be careful."

Oh, wait.

"I can do that!" I waved my free hand a little, trying to find a way to stand up again without grabbing onto Maya in front of me.

"You can?" Chisato immediately turned her head to me, almost in shock.

I can with that flare thing, but if I throw it in here, where there's all this wood, I'll probably set the whole train on fire.

"I-I can, but--" Nope. Back on the floor. Ow. "I...can, but it's...fire. A fire thing."

Chisato nodded as she came over to help me back to my feet. I didn't even have to finish that thought for her to understand what I meant.

"So we need an opening for you to use it?" she guessed, holding onto my shoulder with her free hand.

I nodded. I'm glad there's a way I can help, at least, but I'm not about to become an arsonist and kill us all just to find a way around...

"Can you find something, Maya-chan?" Chisato tilted her head towards Maya.

"Probably, but--" Maya abruptly braced herself against the seat. "I-I can't--... I can't, uh...stand up."

Chisato swiftly passed me over to Eve so she could keep me upright instead, her nearest arm to me calmly wrapping around my waist.

She then stepped over to Maya to help her stand up instead, holding onto her shoulder like she was with mine.

"Thanks..." Maya finally straightened herself and let go of the seat, tapping the sides of her glasses a couple times.

A mint-tinted film then glazed over her glasses, sketching specs after specs of information across her lenses.

...I think. I don't really understand what she's doing, but no one's questioning it, so I guess everything's fine.

"It all looks pretty solid..." Maya slowly shifted her gaze around the area, probably scanning our surroundings. "There's something on top of the train, though, so maybe we can make an opening in the floor..."

"The floor?" Eve almost let go of me in surprise. "But it's so wobbly as it is..."

Easy for you to say.

Chisato didn't reply to either of them. Instead, she let go of Maya and, with the blade portion of her spear, jammed it into the ceiling as hard as she could. She then sliced it on through before repeating that step a few more times. It didn't take long for it to become a decently-sized hole.

Oh, okay.

Let's try this. I summoned a bit of the fire and tossed it through the ho--

Whoa. Fast. That was fast. It took absolutely no time at all to let me see above us.

This actually is a train, but it doesn't look like it's going anywhere important, or...anywhere at all. It's super long, but there aren't any train tracks.

We're moving, but we're not moving. Huh.

It's a very open space, though... Very dark. Dark and cloudy. It feels like we're farther up than we actually a--

Oh my god. Oh my god, we're actually in the sky. It's super dark and cloudy because we're literally in a cloudy sky.

Though I'm wondering if there's a way we can get this thing to stop rocking so much. If there's no tracks, what's making it so shaky?

I shook my head to bring myself back to reality. There's gotta be something I can do...

"This probably isn't gonna hold much longer..." I lied a little.

Well, to me, at least, it looks like it's gonna break apart sometime soon. There's no telling how things'll go...

Chisato looked taken aback for a moment, but tossed it all aside.

"Is there more to this barrier than just the train?" she quickly asked me.

I nodded just as fast.

She slowly nodded back, then spun around to walk fast down the train car.

"I doubt we have much time..." She had her spear at the ready, both hands on it in case she needed t--

There was a loud, ear-piercing screech, almost like train tracks trying to come to a halt.

But this thing doesn't have any train tracks! How the--?!

Chisato, realizing this was a terrible time to be separated, immediately started darting back to us, but was stopped by the floor starting to crumble.

Oh, god.

"Not now!" Chisato twirled her spear around to the front of her. "Definitely not now!"

With a grunt, she stabbed the blade into the wall and slid her free hand across the staff to form another blade on the opposite end and extend it into the other wa--

"Hina-san!" Eve let go of me and went to the back of the train car, hinting that Maya and I should turn our heads back that way to see what was going on.

If I could stay standing, that is. Thanks for the warning...? I'll lean on this other seat, then.

Oh... Hina had her head in her hands, her fingers shakily clawing at her forehead. She looked like she was in an immense amount of pain.

Eve lightly tapped Hina's shoulder, but that only signaled a quickened shake of the head.

"Hina-chan...?" I tried to make my way over to the two of them, but with all of this shaking, I knew I couldn't get very far on my own... I needed to stay by this seat.

This is super weird, though... Ever since we started getting close to this barrier, Hina's been very quiet. And it's already unusual for her to be quiet in the first place. I didn't even realize she'd made it into the barrier with us.

What's been hitting her so badly, she can't let us help her...?

"Hina-chan..." I decided to add onto this. "We only wanna help you. What's the ma--

"Eta Piscium--!"

Light blue stars broke through the top of the train car and down onto its floor, severing any support magic Chisato was trying to use to keep the train secure.

Oh my god. Oh my god, is Hina trying to kill us?!

"Hina-chan, are you insane?!" I could hear Chisato behind us all. "We're not trying to die here! We need to be ca--"

The wood completely shattered beneath us and sent us all screaming through the floor.

And by all, I think it's just Maya and I, clinging to each other like two frightened toddlers.

Oh my god! Hina's actually trying to kill us! We're all gonna die, a--

Uh? Chisato just divebomb past us? Where could she possibly be--

...I landed on something. Huh. And I actually stuck the landing.

Oh, it's one of Chisato's force fields. I'd recognize that yellow anywhere.

So she zoomed past us to break our fall...? I'm glad...

"Hina-chan?" Chisato began to approach Hina, who hadn't said anything yet about all of this. "Hina-chan, please... Talk to us."

"Yeah..." Maya nodded in agreement. "Do you hear something that we don't?"

Hear something that--...? Oh, god. She's right, isn't she? There's something Hina's catching telepathically that the rest of us can't?

Hina slowly nodded, turning her back to us. She definitely didn't seem up to talking about I--

Our scenery began to shift, as if someone had defeated the witch and the barrier was starting to disappear, but instead of bringing us back to the stage, we were...back on a train.

An entirely different train than the last one, too. This one wasn't even wobbly. And it didn't look like it'd been abandoned for a decade or two.

"Another one?!" Maya groaned, running her hand hard down her face. "You gotta be kidding me! How many trains do we gotta go through?!"

"No..." Chisato wagged her finger in the air for a bit. "No, this... This is another barrier entirely. I know that pattern anywhere."

"Another barrier...?" I echoed. "But that would mean someone had to have defeated the witch, right?"

"No barrier is the exact same as another, though." Chisato re-materialized her spear into one hand, probably having dropped it during our little freefall. "Someone's messing with us. That's the only way this could be explained."

"That's probably why we couldn't find the barrier until we got down the stairs..." Maya concluded.

"Exactly," Chisato agreed. "There's someone out there that can conceal barriers. But why go to all this trouble to hide a barrier with another o--"

"Sis?!" Hina quickly swiveled back around to us. "Sis! Where are you?!"

"What is--" Chisato began to reach her hand out to Hi--

"Sis! Sis, I'm coming!" Hina declared before darting off ahead of us in a rush. "Don't worry!"

Uh--?!

"Hina-chan?!" I tried to reach her, but she was too fast, avoiding my grasp.

Eve even tried to head after her, but we were all too late due to the shock. None of us got to Hina before she went through the door.

~ * ~

No matter how fast we went through the door and to the next train car, we still hadn't caught up to Hina. Even after exploring the next few, she was nowhere in sight.

How could Hina have gotten ahead of us that fast...? That alone was making me nervous, but then there's the whole thing with her sister to worry about.

Hina's sister...

Is something wrong with Sayo? Why would she be here? She's not a magical girl, is she?

"Chisato-chan..." I jogged up to Chisato, joining her at her pace. "Is Sayo-chan a magical girl?"

"If she is, then she's very newly contracted..." Chisato sighed, not making eye contact with me. "Like, having contracted sometime today. She definitely wasn't a magical girl last night..."

"Could it really be her, then?" Maya wondered, joining the conversation. "If she's not a magical girl? Who did Hina-san go after, then...?"

"I don't know, but I don't like what's going on here. We're clearly being watched, and along with that, whoever it is dragged one of us away..."

"And we don't know what's going on... Hina-san could've gone straight into a trap."

"That's what I'm worried about..."

Well, now I'm even more nervous than I was before. Thanks, guys.

"Um..." Eve, behind the three of us, motioned us over to her.

She was standing in front of a doorway, staring into it at the shining, almost blinding light that was coming out of it.

"Look at this..." She wasn't looking away from the light.

I joined the others in peeking insi--

...Huh?

It was a slowly-moving clip of one of our older performances, playing on someone's cell phone. It looked like one of our first.

Once Hina had come on the screen, a finger tapped the video to pause it, followed by a prolonged, longing sigh.

Wait a second... I 'kinda recognize that sleeve. Is thi--

"It...can't be." Chisato backed up at an uneven pace, quickly tripping over her own feet and falling backwards into a sitting position.

"Chisato-san?!" Maya ran back to her, telling Eve and I to check as well from where we were.

Wai--

"We need to--...t-to find Hina-chan," Chisato shakily breathed. "Definitely-- I--...Immediately. We--"

The barrier, almost as if it was on a set timer, began to...swirl and fade away.

Oh, god... No way.

"What's going on now?!" Maya was frantically looking around.

"I think Hina-chan defeated the witch..." I mumbled, probably to myself.

We finally came back to reality, the four of us still on the stage.

...The four of us?

"Hina-chan?!" I called out, looking around in hopes she was somewhere close by. "Hina-chan, where are y--"

"I did it..."

And there was Hina, de-transformed and staring straight ahead of her. She was sitting comfortably on one of the speakers to the side of the stage.

"Hina-san...?" Maya stepped over to my side, joining in. "What did you do?"

"Sis is..." Hina sniffled, tears beginning to run. "Sis is--... I-I saved her. She's safe now."

Her gaze slowly came to us, looking around the stage a bit before settling on where we were.

"Right...? Sis is safe now? I-I don't see her..."

What is she talking about...? Sayo isn't--

"Hina-san..." Eve was quiet, but she was probably trying to choose her words carefully. "Sayo-san...isn't here. We never saw her."

Hina seemed surprised by this, but she cracked a grin instead. It didn't take away from the fact that she was still crying, though.

"Aha... No way, right?" She shrugged it off. "That was definitely Sis."

Even though she was sitting, her balance seemed to be...shaky. I don't think she can stay upright much longer.

Chisato caught that, too, quickly scrambling to her feet.

"Hina-chan!" Chisato de-transformed so she could dig around in her skirt pockets. "I need to see your Soul Gem! Please! It's a matter of--

"It's alright, Chisato-chan..." Hina held up her Soul Gem, darkened beyond belief.

Wait, why is it--

"I saved Sis..." Hina sniffled again. "I don't need to worry about my magic anymore. I figured it all out, so... I'm fine."

"You're not fine!" Chisato, having rummaged through her pockets, came up empty, so she began to dart around the stage. "You need a Grief Seed, and you need it now! That needs to be purified as soon as possible!"

Eve and Maya quickly joined in the search, but I couldn't take my eyes off of Hina, who was staring at her Soul Gem.

"Y'know... I never could understand why Sis got so...cold with me all of a sudden." She let out a deep sigh. "Why would she pity herself so much? Why did she want me to pity her, too...?"

There was the sound of a crack from somewhere, which caused Chisato to freeze in place.

"I love Sis... I love her more than anything in the world. Nothing's gonna change that."

Another crack.

"So to hear how much she hates herself... It--..."

Hina decided to just let it all out, cupping her face in her hands as she bawled straight onto her Soul Gem.

"It hurts! It really, really hurts! Why does it hurt so bad?! Why can't we hang out normally, and support each other, and--"

Crack.

All stopped on the stage--no movement, no words, no gasps--as the four of us watched Hina slump over and to the side, leaving her...Grief Seed behind.

...Oh.

The Grief Seed exploded into view, sending all but Hina off the stage and into the audience as a new witch's barrier began to form around us all.

I get it now. The reason Chisato wanted us to keep purifying our Soul Gems so bad...

She wanted to keep us from turning into witches ourselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first plot point I ever planned. This was what initially got the ball rolling for me to write the fic, and it STILL hurts. Holy shit. I'd always known that, as soon as Aya contracted, something was going to go wrong, but I didn't expect it to flow well enough for it to happen literally two chapters after.
> 
> Now, where can I even begin? I'm tagging the character death before I even publish this chapter, so if I screw that up somehow, please correct me. This may have been planned from the start, but I don't want to trigger anyone, now that the angst has rolled in.
> 
> Oh, god... I'm proud of myself for making it this far without screwing up this scene, but I'm just as sad.  
> I love the Hikawa sisters. I didn't hit the top 1000 in the Tanzaku event for nothing. That event and the Autumn Rain event influenced this plot point so much.
> 
> Speaking of the Autumn Rain event, I'm glad it's over by the time I got to this point. I like to think the beginning of this fic is dated, in the Bandori timeline, to somewhere around the beginning of that event's story, if not a bit before. I like to experiment with what would happen if one element went a different way and how that would affect everything else around it and after it, so it feels like a canon divergence, in a way.  
> Except there's magical girls, so this isn't exactly canon divergence.  
> I don't know. I'm sad.
> 
> All that aside, if I don't get another chapter out before it, I'm going to CharaExpo both days. If you wanna find me, look for a Moca with a beige Pikmin bag. I'm also going with a Marina, but just in case there's points where we're not right next to each other, I always have that Pikmin bag on me when I go to conventions. Feel free to come find me and chat, if you want! I can assure you I'm complete ass at social interactions, so if you're nervous about approaching random people, I completely get that.


	22. Never For This

The four of us were thrown into the middle of a forest, of some sort.

At least, that was what it looked like, with all these super tall trees everywhere. The only way someone could see the sky—the darkest blue, illuminated just enough by the stars and the moon to be able to see around us—was if they looked straight up.

The space where we all were was open, like it’d been forcibly cleared out by some kind of natural disaster. Some really strong winds, maybe? Since the missing trees were thrown to the sides like toys. Some of them were completely uprooted, while others were ripped in half.

Completely fitting, for a hell such as this.

I couldn’t help but be looking towards the sky, because there was a massive figure hovering above us, in the center of the clearing. It kind of looked like a bird...

No. No, that’s not a bird. No way. It has a...harp for a body. No bird has a harp for a body, and some weird shadowy things coming out of the sides like some arms ready to stri—

“Aya-chan! Fall back!”

Witches are magical girls. Magical girls. What I am. What the rest of us here are. Our Soul Gems become Grief Seeds, and we die.

It’s a cycle of sorrow, and we’re all a part of it. We’re all going to become witches someday, and before then, we’re literally killing people that were once just li—

“Aya-san!”

I was quickly picked up by Eve and held close as she carried me away from the middle of the battlefield. I didn’t even have the willpower to react to it, or the fact that the same giant, shadowy hand had slammed itself down right where I just was.

“Aya-sa—“ Eve stopped herself so she could focus on hopping over a tree—toppled over, but still pretty massive—and get me out of the witch’s sight.

Once we were in hiding, she leaned in close to my ear and whispered.

“Aya-san...” she began to plead, her voice cracking a little. “Please come back to us. We can’t do this without you...”

Come back to us... We can't do this without you...

Hina can't come back to us. She can't. We literally saw her corpse fall over as she died. There's no way she can come back to us.

Not while she's attacking us. She's literally attacking us, like she doesn't even know us.

And Eve expects me to fight Hina? How could I possibly do that?! Hina's one of my best frie--

"I'll take her, Eve-chan... Please head back to Chisato-san and Maya-senpai, if you can."

Whoever this new person that approached us was sounded like Tsugumi, but I didn't bother to figure that out.

Eve almost immediately passed me over to this newcomer, though, and proceeded to jump back over the tree.

"I've got you, Aya-san..." Tsugumi tried to reassure me, leaning over me to shield me. "I'm sorry it came to this, though. We had no idea this would happen..."

No idea...? No idea of Hina becoming a witch? How was anyone supposed to know abou--

"Hey... Where did Lisa-san want us to go after we picked 'em up?" Someone else, maybe Tomoe, was suddenly next to us. I only assumed it was Tomoe because I could kind of see her hair brushing against Tsugumi's shoulder.

Lisa... Roseglow is here. I'm glad, but it definitely makes me wonder why they didn't get here soone--

A screech, supposedly in pain, came from where the witch should be. There was a...familiar voice woven into the garbled mess, for sure.

Oh, god...

The realization hit me like a tsunami, making me cling to Tsugumi hard.

Don't do this to me. Please, please don't do this to me. Don't make me listen to this anymore! Please! If this is what the magical girl life is like, then I'd rather quit while I'm still alive than listen to Hina's cries anymore!

I thought--... I thought magical girls were supposed to help people, and keep them safe... This isn't that...

And I want out. I need out. There's no way I can keep fighting witches when witches were once magical girls, just like us...

~ * ~

Roseglow, thankfully, helped us all get home.

Tomoe was carrying a wounded Maya right off the bat. From what I could hear, she was just as out of it as I was, but there was no one to shield her while Eve was with me and Chisato was fighting.

Eve wasn’t that wounded physically, from what I could make out, but emotionally—...

...We were all in pain. Of course we were. Hina was one of our dearest friends. For something like this to happen to any of us, yet alone Hina, was unheard of.

That was what I thought was the case.

Chisato, unlike the rest of us, didn’t question this in the slightest. It was like she’d expected it to happen, at some point...

Hold on. She may still be a mystery, when it comes to knowing how and what she thinks, but I, at least, know she cares.

Even if she knew what magical girls could become, she’s still a vital part of Pastel*Palettes. We all are. We love each other.

Despite her willingness to take Hina’s witch down, as soon as we were back in CiRCLE, she fled in a fit of tears. No words to anyone.

...I don’t know what to think. I feel like my thoughts are all over the place, and nothing is making sense to anyone but me. My brain is complete mush.

These were the things going through my head as Tsugumi took me back to my place.

In order to avoid causing a scene, I walked there instead of letting her carry me. Someone as disheveled as me right now being carried home in the middle of the day was bound to get people talking, and that was the last thing any of us needed right now.

Tsugumi unlocked my front door for me. I didn’t even feel confident enough to know how to do that, so I’d sloppily handed her my house key somewhere along the way and just let her do her thing.

I think she asked me if anyone would be home right now, but I didn’t bother replying. 

To be honest, I didn’t know how to. If anyone’s home right now, let them worry. Let them ask me what’s up. Even if I can’t explain everything to them in full detail, I need to get something off my chest. Something.

And that something wouldn’t be worthwhile. Anything that could come out of my mouth right now wouldn’t be anything of substance.

If my head is this much of a mess, then it’s definitely not going to translate well through speech.

Once things started going sour, I froze. I couldn’t do anything today to save Hina. I don’t think I deserve to be giving an input right now, anyway.

“Is there anything I could get you?” Tsugumi asked me as she guided me to my bed. “Any tea? Maybe a blanket?”

My head slowly shook, then followed through with my body weight dragging it down and onto my side.

I didn’t deserve her sympathy. Someone died today, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Not a single thing.

Call me dumb or selfish or whatever, but I can’t even bring myself to come to terms with this right now. It’s absolutely impossible to figure this all out, with how rocky things are. Hina’s death is going to affect a lot more than I can even think of off the top of my head.

A large portion of my life has crumbled within the past hour, and I don’t know how to face it at all.

Tsugumi pulled out the chair from my desk and turned it around so she could sit and look at me.

“I’m not gonna force you to talk or do anything you don’t want to, but...” She slid her phone out of her pocket and unlocked it.

But what? There’s more to life than the pain and suffering that I’ve voluntarily gotten myself into before reading the fine print of it? I trust you, Tsugumi, but this sounds like a bunch of—

“This isn’t the end of everything.”

...Huh?

I unlocked my phone and headed to LINE. It was a chat with Tsugumi, but one completely separate from the Tsugumi that I knew from my own timeline.

Huh... I guess this is how Hina got those texts from the future Moca.

The same phone number on two different phones? This is gonna be pretty inte—

“I know it seems like it is right now, though. I’m not gonna deny that someone’s died today. Someone close to you. But just because they’re gone now doesn’t mean they’ll be gone forever.”

That...doesn’t make any sense. I may be new to this magical girl stuff, but even I know we can’t just...bring back the dead. We probably could if someone wished for it, but without that, it’s—

“You see, before Roseglow formed, Ran-chan was fighting on her own.”

...Huh?

“We never knew. We still don’t know what she wished for back then...”

Back then...?

“And there was no way for us to find out, since she...became a witch. None of us had any idea until Lisa-senpai told us. The Lisa-senpai from Roseglow that you saw today.”

“She told us that Ran-chan had fallen victim to the magical girl field. It was a vague explanation, but we came to learn the specifics of that later on.”

Oh... Uh—

“But there was a way to bring Ran-chan back, she said. If the rest of us in Afterglow became magical girls, we could wish to bring her back to life just fine. We could all fight together with Lisa-senpai, and try to prevent this heartache from happening to anyone else. We could support our friends across timelines.”

“So we did. We all became magical girls on the spot. One of us had even wished for Ran-chan to come back to life.”

“Roseglow was born on that day, with Ran-chan back.”

Tsugumi, with a long sigh, paused for a little while, stretching her fingers.

I scrolled through what she’d sent, in the meantime. It was all so surreal to try and picture...

The Ran that I saw today had died before. She was once a witch, just like Hina became.

But...she’s back. She’s safe. She’s even a magical girl again, and helping out her frie—

“Hina-senpai, in this timeline, is gone for now. Roseglow has failed to keep this timeline free of casualties. The safest thing for us to do would be to leave this timeline for the next one so we could start over from step one.”

“But timelines continue after we leave them. We can’t just show up, watch someone fall, and leave everyone else to grieve and run around blind without that someone.”

“Even though these are different timelines, you’re all still our friends. That’s never changing. We want to make sure you’ll all be okay with your lives once we leave for the next timeline.”

“We need to get through this with no one dying. Fix the past to fix the present. If we can get to the point we usually go back in time at without anyone dying, then we’ve done it. We could go back to our own time and reunite with our friends.”

I—... I think I understand. It’s a hard thing to take in, of course, but...

“So, it’s...” I rolled over onto my back, practically whispering. “It’s not the first time Hina-Chan’s—...”

As soon as I started to say it, my throat closed up. I guess I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

But what’s so hard about stating the facts...? Hina’s dead. I know she is. We all know she is, because we all just stood there and watched her die.

I bet she hates us for not trying to save her... I’d hate us. I’d hate me, to be honest.

Oh, that definitely calls for a cry. Ow.

And I just let them come, picking up my pillow from under my head so I could sob right into it.

We couldn’t do a thing to help her! What kind of nonsense is that?! Where even was the—...

...The Grief Seed. Where was the Grief Seed?

I lowered my pillow down to my chest to hug it instead.

“Tsugumi-chan...” I turned my head towards her. “What happened to the Grief Seed...?”

“Hina-senpai’s?” Tsugumi tilted her head to the side. “Chisato-san has it. Why?”

Chisato has...Hina’s. I’m not very surprised...

But I shook my head.

“No, the—... The one that we should’ve gotten before Hina—...” I trailed off.

I couldn’t bring myself to say it. It’s so stupid that I can’t say the simplest things.

Tsugumi seemed to be concerned, staring at me like I was as delusional as I feel right now.

Uh...

“We...didn’t find another Grief Seed,” she admitted. “We’re just as confused as you are. It was a witch, right? Not a familiar? ‘Cause familiars alone don’t drop Grief Seeds...”

It...was a witch’s barrier, right? It had to be. Why else was Hina so certain she’d saved—...

...She’d saved Sayo.

“Um...” I slowly sat up in bed and turned to face her, still hugging my pillow. “Is Sayo-chan a magical girl in this timeline...?”

That was definitely Sayo’s barrier. Who else would have such vivid memories of Hina in it?

“What?” Tsugumi immediately shook her head. “No... Definitely not. I’m sure of it. Sayo-san never contracts before Hina-senpai falls. ‘Cause she always wishes to find Hina-senpai...”

She then got out of the chair and sat down next to me on the bed.

“Did...something happen? ‘Cause the only future people here are the ones in Roseglow. That’s always been the case...”

But I would’ve known who was texting me, if it was someone I knew. Same with whoever called me. I can’t think of a single person I know that I don’t know the number of...

I decided to show her the text we all got.

“This was how we all got to CiRCLE...” I told her, almost in a hush. “This wasn’t any of you guys, right...?”

If Tsugumi doesn’t have an answer for me, then there’s a major problem here. That would mean there’s future people here that even Roseglow doesn’t know about. And that’d be even more concerning than what else has happened today.

Tsugumi squinted at the text, then slowly reached towards my phone. We both exchanged a glance of approval, so she took it out of my hand and went to check the specifics of the text.

“No, this—... This definitely wasn’t us,” she disagreed, tapping back and forth from the chat to its details. “Only Roseglow should know about PasuRevo. Besides PasuRevo, at least. And Roseglow was patching up when this was sent so we could head back to our base...”

This is very concerning... Whoever got us down there, I’m starting to think that they didn’t have the good intentions that Ro—

“Sis?”

Tsugumi and I immediately looked towards the door in unison.

In the doorway stood a little girl about Ako’s height, perhaps a bit shorter. She had long, pink hair down past her waist.

She was looking at me, then Tsugumi, then me again, then Tsu—

“Oh!” She backed up a step or two, raising her hands to about eye level. “I-I’m sorry! I’m not interrupting anything, am I?!”

“Hana...” I couldn’t get anything else out. It just wouldn’t work.

Meet Hana Maruyama, my wonderful little sister. I love her more than I love myself. If someone were to harm her, I’d rip up the floors and slam that person under it with all my might.

...You get what I mean.

Tsugumi stood back up with a smile, swiveling on her heel a bit to talk to Hana.

“Not at all!” she reassured her, heading towards the door herself after placing my phone on my bed. “I need to get going, anyway.”

She then, without turning back to me, waved goodbye with the hand that had her phone in it.

“I’ll keep in touch, Aya-san! Don’t worry. I’ll talk to Lisa-senpai about it, and try to get back to you tonight, okay?”

And with that, Tsugumi turned down the hallway and saw herself out.

Hana waited until Tsugumi left out our front door, then shuffled over to my bed and sat down where Tsugumi was.

“Is something wrong...?” She patted my hand with a hint of worry. “You’ve been crying...”

Oh, yeah... I was crying.

Crying over Hina. Crying over losing her. Crying over worrying about Sayo. Crying over her worries. Crying over not being able to help either of them. Crying over being a terrible friend to Hina. Crying over being a terrible big sister to Hana. Crying ove—

My thoughts were interrupted by Hana hugging me tight, sending us both back onto the bed.

Oh, uh—

“It’s okay...” She rolled off of me and took the pillow with her, gently trying to slide it under my head before I just let her do it. “Just let it out, yeah? I’ll stay right by you until you feel better.”

So...I did.

I just let it all out. All of it.

All of that stress built up over the past couple of days, especially today.

I rolled over and hugged Hana close, bawling onto her shoulder.

Hina was gone, and someone is to blame. And it’s someone that Roseglow isn’t even aware of.

And even with my magic, even with my sword and microphone, there was nothing I could do to save her.

Nothing. Nothing at all.

It’s such a helpless feeling, to feel like you’re on top of the world, but you get thrown back to rock bottom with ease.

We’re just getting started, and I’m absolutely terrified.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween! As I'm typing these notes, I'm currently waiting for my next class in, like...two hours.
> 
> Oof.
> 
> But anyways! Hana's been a little creation of mine for quite a while. I knew she was going to come in eventually, but I wasn't entirely sure when that'd happen.
> 
> I'm glad she has, though! Artistic liberty is fun when Bushiroad doesn't show us most of the siblings. Let us see the siblings, dammit!
> 
> That being said, if Aya's sister is ever shown, I'll probably rewrite the portions Hana's in to have them be her actual sister instead. But until then, here's Hana.
> 
> And we also have Roseglow's origin...'kinda. We have the reasoning for Afterglow's involvement, but why Lisa started everything...?
> 
> I wonder when that's gonna come out.
> 
> Also, since I got a chapter up before CharaExpo, lemme add onto that! I plan on bringing a bag of chocolate cornets with me, so if you're going, I'll give you one! I'm probably gonna have about...ten for the duration of the con.
> 
> NaNoWriMo's on the horizon. My WriMo is going to be Pastel Magica, so I wonder if that's gonna make chapters come out faster. ~~Who knows? Not me, lmao--~~


	23. And It's Obvious

The next day was a Monday.

Monday... A fitting hump day for the beginning of the week.

No one likes Mondays. You go back to school after a restful day, completely out of it and unwilling to get anything productive done.

It’s hell. It’s absolute hell.

Today is also a work day, but not until somewhere in the afternoon...I think.

But I can’t see myself being able to go to either of them. Not because I conveniently forgot to set my alarm for school and slept until noon, though.

How was I supposed to go to anywhere after a day like yesterday? My heart doesn’t work like that.

If I see Eve or Chisato, I’m going to cry. I’m going to bawl my eyes out, and I won’t be able to stop. The school would have to send me home, because those tears would not be able to stop flowing.

Someone would probably end up asking me what’s wrong, but I wouldn’t be able to answer. There would be no way to answer without telling the truth, and the truth is something I definitely need to avoid.

Letting people know about Hina or Sayo is going to kill me internally. I don’t want to be held responsible for shattering someone’s heart into a million pieces.

But...Rinko. Oh, god, Rinko. We’re in the same class, but we hardly talk, if at all. I don’t blame her for not wanting to reach out when she’s shy, however, but right now, everything is just making me feel terrible, even if it’s something that’s not my fault.

I don’t have the heart to deal with anything today, and understandably so. My brain is completely shut off, and I don’t know how to turn it back on to try and deal with the pain stabbing me repeatedly in the chest.

This wasn’t what I signed up for at all, when I decided to become a magical girl. I wanted to be able to help and keep my loved ones safe, but I’ve already failed that.

I’ve already failed that. I’ve failed. How terrible of me...

Motivation was at an all-time low, as expected, so I stayed in bed the entire day. I didn’t even get up for food.

My parents were worried, yeah, but I tried to fake being sick to get them to dismiss the whole thing. Pretending I had a bad cough was enough, right? We’re there any viruses going around lately that involved a stupid cough?

I could tell they didn’t buy it, but I didn’t care. At least they left me alone.

Go ahead and give up on me, like you should be doing. It’s the best thing that can be done right now.

Why would I go anywhere when Hina can’t anymore? It feels so...selfish to want to keep living when I just let her die. So I’ll just waste away in bed, and ignore how quickly my life fell apart at the seams.

My phone was across the room, on silent in one of my dresser drawers. If someone needs me, they’re going to have to wait quite a while before I can bring myself to respond, or even look at whatever it is they want from me.

I know it’s selfish of me to be isolating myself like this when the rest of PasuRevo is hurting as well, but I can’t be bothered to care right now.

~*~

At some point during the day, I’d put on Maya’s pajamas. I hadn’t washed them from the night before, but it didn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere in these pajamas, anyway.

They also smelled like Maya’s house. It was one of those smells that didn’t really have a specific name that it could be called, but it made me feel a little bit at ease.

It smelled like...home. A little stuffy of a home, but still a home. And it’s a welcoming home, where vivid memories of gossiping with Maya while we munched on convenience store food kept me sane.

But those were just memories. Memories from a time where Hina was still living.

~*~

The only thing that sounded good was staring at my ceiling from under my quilt, sketching pictures in my mind that wished to be projected onto the white above.

It wasn’t clearing my head, like I’d hoped it would, but it was keeping me preoccupied, at least. Any way to pass the time was something I’d gladly take right now.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good use of my time. Instead of letting my mind wander into calming dreams, all that kept coming to the surface was negativity.

Hina is dead. One of my closest, dearest friends is dead. And I watched her die. She died right in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to save her. I just let her die.

This string of facts kept running and running through my mind, and they didn’t show any sign of stopping. The pain they brought were so constant, I don’t think I slept more than an hour or so.

~*~

When it was time to head to work, I finally slid out of bed and shuffled over to my phone.

As much as I’d love to just go back to sleep and leave my phone alone for a while longer, I didn’t want to lose my job. I needed that, especially now.

I had quite a few texts and missed calls. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t this.

There was another reason I grabbed my phone, though. I’ll check all of those in a bit.

I went to text Kanon. I felt bad for putting this level of stress on her, but I know I wouldn’t be able to hold myself together long enough to finish my shift.

“Hey, Kanon-chan...” I began to text her. “I hate to spring this up on u all of a sudden, but would u be able to cover my shift today, pls? I’m rly under the weather;;;”

It was a lie, of course, but it was the lie I’d been keeping up from the start. Besides, I can’t let the truth out. No wa—

Whoa. That was fast.

“Oh no!! :c R u ok?? Ppl were asking abt u today...”

People were asking about me...? Huh... That would explain all the texts and missed calls I have.

If they knew the real reason I stayed home today, they wouldn’t be so worried. I bet they’d be hating me just as much as I’m hating myself.

“Oh dw!! I think it’s just the flu. No worries!!”

I really wish it was just the flu. I can handle the flu. But this? Not a cha—

Kanon replied just as quickly.

“I’m not on the schedule for today so I'll head down there rn!! I hope u feel better soon!!”  
A soft sigh of relief slipped through my lips as I went to my missed calls.

Thank you so much, Kanon... I need to repay her for this, at some point. I hate when I can’t help her out at work...

Oh, hello. Saya called me. So did Arisa and...Moca.  
Moca... Which Moca is this?

It’s definitely Moca’s number, but this could still be either Moca... I guess I have to call her back to find out which one this is. I hit the button to call her back and put my phone to my ear.

Not much time passed at all before she picked up.  
“Roseglow’s Pizza~... We WILL warm up your soda~. General Aoba speakiiing~...”

Well, that solved that.

“Moca-chan...?” I whispered into the phone. “Did you call me earlier?”

“Oooh~... Lieutenant Maruyama~! We’re having a special delivery deal where we teleport straight into your room with a box of pizza~! It’s on the house~!”

...Huh? Is Moca here right now?

I pulled back my curtain to see, just in ca—

“I hope you like extra cheeeeese~...” slid into my ear from behind me.

The hairs on my neck stood on end, making me spin around in a panic to see what was going on.

And there was Moca, with an open pizza box held out to me. She was peeking out from above it, grinning at me with that usual grin of hers.

“Bet’cha haven’t eaten anything yet today~...” she guessed correctly. “So I got’cha this. But don’t think I’m not takin’ half of this~.”

~*~

“Thanks, Moca-chan...” I closed the pizza box with a sigh after Moca took the last slice.

“‘Course.” She shrugged. “Can’t blame you for takin’ the day off today, but that doesn’t mean we’ll let you starve yourself.”

We...? I guess the pizza thing was Roseglow’s idea, not just Moca’s.

“That’s not the only reason you came down here, right?” I assumed, plopping back down onto my bed. “Is there something you wanted to tell me, too?”

“Ehhh~...” She let herself fall back onto my floor, hovering the slice in front of her face, as if he was examining it. “It ‘kinda was. We were worried about you, yeah, but I was the one that wanted to check on you.”

She wanted to check on me. I want to feel touched, but...

“I know how you feel,” she went on in between bites of pizza, “wanting to give up ‘cause someone’s gone. That was me when Ran was gone.”

Oh, yeah... Tsugumi was talking about that.

“Ran didn’t deserve all that pain. I wanted to help take it all away from her... So I wished to bring her back to us.”

As soon as she finished the slice, she rolled over and sat up, making sure she was facing me.

“One of Roseglow’s biggest secrets~... No one but Lisa-san knows why Lisa-san wished, or what she wished for. That used to be how I was with my secret, but now you know~.”

To be honest, there was something in the back of my mind that was telling me Moca was the one to bring Ran back to life, but I didn’t want to assume. Now that I know for sure, though, it makes so much sense.

“But why tell me this...?” I decided to ask her. “I’m already a magical girl. I can’t bring Hina-chan back...”

Moca’s default smile wiped itself away as I spoke, her eyes lowering to her twiddling thumbs.

“Tsugu already said it...” She let out a sigh, kind of uncharacteristically of her. “People can’t be brought back to life without someone wishing for it to happen. That’s not gonna change.”

Her eyes came back up to me just as slowly, locking gazes with me once again.

“But that doesn’t mean you should be giving up. Hina-senpai wouldn’t want you to be sad. She’d want you to get back out there, and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

I...wanted to ask her how she knew this, but there was something about this entire conversation that made me feel like I just knew how.

Moca knew so much more than I did about this situation. That also isn’t going to change. She could be referring to something that happened in another timeline.

And that, weirdly, was trying to put me at ease.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings! I did this in class.  
> CharaExpo was fun. Kudoharu blew a kiss in my general direction, and I grossly sobbed during Neo-Aspect. Kanon Shizaki almost made me lose my voice.  
> ...Ahem.  
> If this chapter feels like a long tangent, then I did my job. We're supposed to be at a weird standstill right now.  
> Roseglow saves the day yet again, and pushes an entire scene into the next chapter. Good job, Moca. I love you.


	24. Even Though It Hurts...

It took me quite a while to finally get to sleep that night. Moca had soothed my worries quite a bit, but after she left, it felt like everything in my head just went right back to how it was before she showed up.  
  
But once I did fall asleep, I wasn’t asleep for long. I think I woke up within the hour, if not even sooner.  
  
I know I’m tired. My back is killing me, like if I hadn’t slept in a week.  
  
...The fact that I kind of know how that feels is terrifying. There’s times where I go at least a whole day without sleep before it catches up with me, but at a time like this, it feels...different.  
  
It...does feel different. It’s as if I’ve been drained of all energy, but my brain hasn’t caught up with that yet. It’s like my brain and my body are two separate entities, but...they’re a part of one entity. I’m me, but I don’t feel like me.  
  
...This hurts my head. Ow. I don’t like it. I definitely didn’t ask to confuse myself.  
  
But I’m not me anymore. I don’t feel like me, at least. Aya Maruyama still exists, but she’s on a completely different level now than before she became a magical girl.  
  
And whether that’s a good thing or not is...up to interpretation.  
  
I don’t know. I want to say I regret my wish, but what would’ve happened to Ran and Moca if I didn’t? Do I really have a right to be regretting it when lives were on the line?  
  
This easily kept me awake through most of the night, making me pass the time by going through every single little thing that I’ve done to see if I regret even more things about myself.  
  
Self-deprecation at its finest. Thank you, self-deprecation, for tiring me out enough to force my eyes to close.  
  
~*~  
  
“...?”  
  
There was...something on my shoulder. It was shaking it. Gently, but enough to get my attention?  
  
Who’s trying to wake me up...? I don’t want to get up. Just let me sleep, will y—  
  
“Aya-senpai... Aya-senpai, can you wake up, please?”  
  
...Is that Arisa?  
  
My eyes fluttered open to take in the lighting in the room, which was on, for some reason.  
  
Arisa was by my face, gently shaking my shoulder. She looked worried, but it was like she was trying to hide it by biting her bottom lip a bunch.  
  
I slowly sat myself up to take in the rest of the room.  
  
Silver braids and a Hanasakigawa uniform were just barely heading out of the room and out of my sight. I guess that was Eve?  
  
And to confirm those guesses was an even more worried-looking Kasumi, on her knees next to where Arisa was. Her eyes were desperately on me the entire time.  
  
Did I...worry everyone that badly? Kasumi looks like she’s going to burst into tears, and Arisa maaaay or may not be ready to slap me across the face for making Kasumi cry.  
  
“Kasumi-...chan?” I slowly began to push my quilt off of me with my fee—  
  
“Aya-senpai!” Kasumi flung herself onto me, plopping her face onto my lap as she awkwardly hugged me. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I’ve been texting you, a-and I haven’t been getting anything, but Eve-chan said you haven’t been answering anyone...!”  
  
I...think she’s crying on me. It sounds like it, at least. It’s muffled into my top, but it sounds like she’s really going at it.  
  
To think that I brought Kasumi, of all people, to tears... I feel terrible. I never wanted to make anyone this upset, or upset at all.  
  
Not to mention Arisa isn’t even looking at us. Her hands are clenched into fists, though, so however she’s feeling is a complete mystery.  
  
I went to rub Kasumi’s head, but she shot back up to look at me.  
  
Yup. Yup, she’s crying. She’s crying hard. Ow.  
  
“What happened, though?” she asked, picking up my arms one at a time to examine them. Arisa looked even angrier at that action. “You’re not hurt, right? You didn’t get hurt?”  
  
Uh—  
  
“Oh! Are you sick? You don’t look sick. Do you feel sick?”  
  
Well—  
  
“Or is it—“  
  
I pulled Kasumi back into a hug, hoping that would be enough to silence her for a little while longer. It seemed to kind of work, but whatever her last sentence was became muffled into my shoulder after I brought her face to it.  
  
Just...stop talking, Kasumi. Please. For a few more seconds. I appreciate your concern, and I definitely appreciate who you’ve brought here to check on me along with yourself, but all of this talking is hurting my brain right now. Just give me a moment or two of a nice, silent hug...  
  
Out of the corner of my eye, I could make out another figure coming to the doorway, so I raised my gaze to see who it was.  
  
As soon as Eve noticed I was looking at her, she shuffled back into the room.  
  
‘I have something for you, Aya-san...’ she brought up, keeping her words telepathic. ‘Chisato-san just brought it over.’  
  
‘Chisato-chan was here?’ I tilted my head slightly.  
  
Why did she not come in...? She’s more than welcome to. Even if she wanted to knock on the door to my balcony in the middle of the night, I’d let her in without any questions.  
  
‘She handed it off and left...’ Eve sighed. ‘It was like she didn’t want to see anyone...’  
  
To be honest, I think I can actually understand her reasoning for that. Chisato’s been in this field for so long, she probably has her own way of dealing with loss. I can’t fault her for wanting to stay away from everyone during this time when I’ve been doing the exact same thing.  
  
And she probably figured that. It’s a bit of a stretch to see it that way, but it’s something that makes me feel a little better about her absence right now.  
  
“Aya-san...” Eve spoke normally, heading to my desk chair to turn it around to us and sit down on it. “You’re...okay, right? I told Kasumi-san and Arisa-san that Hina-san is missing... I know you must be taking it harder than some of us.”  
  
‘Missing?’ My eyes widened. That’s how we’re covering this up?  
  
‘Himari-san said this would be the easiest way to tell people without causing a scene...’ Eve sighed again. ‘Besides, we can’t say Hina-san is dead without expecting questions about where her body is. It was left in her barrier after she was defeated, so it’d be best if people don’t know how much we know...’  
  
‘I...see,’ I acknowledged, though my heart began to sink all over again because of it.  
  
Unless someone grabbed Hina’s body before the barrier disappeared, she’d be left in it. I’m not even sure if we knew where her body was. Did it get stuck with the witch? Did the witch do something to it so we couldn’t find it? I have no idea, but if Eve says Hina’s body didn’t leave that barrier, then it didn’t leave that barrier.  
  
“Yeah, I—...” I let out a sigh myself. “I’m...okay. I’m not sick, or...hurt, or...anything like that. I’m just...upset.”  
  
“Because of Hina-san,” Arisa guessed, “right? Understandably so. She’s the lifeblood of your band, pretty much.”  
  
Kasumi immediately shot back up at Arisa’s comment, quickly wriggling out of my hug to give her the biggest grin.  
  
“You agree, huh, Arisaaaaa?” she sung, giggling at the end of her sentence. “Everyone in Pastel*Palettes has their own sparkle to them! Their own unique, sparkly sparkle! It’s amazing!”  
  
Arisa chuckled herself, though it felt like she was forcing it a little.  
  
“Only you would word it like that...” she mused, sitting down on the floor. “But...yeah. I can’t deny Hina-san’s pretty out there. But that’s just how she is.”  
  
Everyone in Pastel*Palettes does have their own special charm... I agree completely. If asked, though, I don’t think I’d be able to narrow down each person to just one unique trait of theirs.  
  
Hina, too. Hina was smart and funny, but she also had her moments where she couldn’t understand the rest of us. The untrained eye would find that to be a rather weird contradiction, but that supposed contradiction is just how she is.  
  
And she wanted to get over that hurdle. She was actively trying to figure us all out, trying to explore all of the different aspects of people that she’d never bothered to think about before she joined Pastel*Palettes. She wanted to understand us.  
  
She wanted to understand us...  
  
“Aya-senpai...?” Kasumi gently placed her hand on my shoulder and nudged me slightly. “Are you okay?”  
  
Why is—  
  
Oh... I’m crying. I’m crying as I think about Hina.  
  
I went to wipe my eyes, but Kasumi caught that hand and held it in her own.  
  
“You’re hurting...” she realized. “You’re hurting because you miss Hina-san, right? That’s why you haven’t been to school...”  
  
Oh, Kasumi... You hit the nail right on the head. Nothing sour can ever get past you, huh? That’s what I admire about you. You’re always full of surprises, and it always catches me at the best times... I nodded, confirming her suspicions.  
  
“You know...” She brought her other hand to mine as well, clasping them together around it. “If you’re hurting, you don’t have to go about it alone. There’s a ton of people that’d wanna help you out, and help you feel better.”  
  
And she gave me that smile. That signature smile of hers, lighting up the whole room with her own sparkle.  
  
Not only did it make the room warm, but I could feel it warming me up. It was defrosting the barrier Hina’s absence had made, and letting me bask in that warmth.  
  
Perhaps I was treating this trivial little thing as something much more significant, but that was just how Kasumi was: she could make the softest children’s lullabies into a powerful rock song, and has. She anchors people that begin to float adrift, and helps them mend their rafts to turn them into massive pirate ships, aiming to sail the seven seas with them.  
  
And she’s doing that to me right now. She anchored me, and brought me back to shore.  
  
“Plus!” She leaned in a bit closer, with her eyes sparkling. “I can help look for her, if you wanna! Detective Kasumi and Detective Aya-senpai! The perfect dete—“  
  
Arisa reflexively punched Kasumi in the shoulder, causing Kasumi to let go of my hands and sit back on the ground.  
  
“You gotta leave that kind of thing to the police!” Arisa insisted, fists still clenched. “What if you get hurt?! You don’t have all that magic stuff Hina-san has!”  
  
I couldn’t help but let out a giggle myself. To be so oblivious to the truth behind Hina’s situation, but still wanting to help.  
  
Just like Kasumi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the second plot point I initially planned.  
> God, I love Kasumi. She always knows what to say, even if it takes her a bit sometimes. It’s times like these where I can’t wait until Story 0 for PoPiPa comes to EN.  
> Arisa wasn’t initially in this, but I’m not going to complain about characters coming in when it can make sense.  
> I’m in class again, though! What’s up? I wanna go back to sleep.  
> Winter Break starts really soon, so I wonder if my plot points will be able to form into words much faster. But if I don’t, Happy Holidays and stuff! Kick ass, treat yourself, and don’t let New Year’s Dreamfes kill you.


	25. We Have To Keep Going

I'd managed to make it to school the next day, much to my own surprise. I guess I could thank Kasumi for snapping me out of my daze. If she hadn't come down, I don't know when I would've been okay again.

Well... I guess I wouldn't say I'm okay, though. I'm not sobbing for hours on end in bed now, but that doesn't mean I'm okay.

Hina's gone. I'm not forgetting that, nor do I want to, especially since I'm the one holding onto her Grief Seed now.

It was definitely a shock to get it. Chisato apparently picked it up after everything had died down, and had it in her possession ever since, but planned on giving it to me the first time she'd seen me at school. And since I'd been ditching, she thought it'd be best to come and see me instead of waiting to run into me.

But why couldn't she hand it to me herself...? At a time like this, shouldn't we all be looking out for each other? One member short or not, we're still Pastel*Palettes. We watch each other's backs, even when we need to watch our own.

Either way, I wasn't going to let the Grief Seed out of my sight. I don't plan on ever using it, sure, but leaving it unattended somewhere? I can't even begin to imagine what that could do. I don't know all about how Grief Seeds work, but for Chisato to give this to me has to mean it'd be okay for me to just hold onto it.

I had it buried at the bottom of my school bag, under any school supplies I could possibly need today. There was also a portable phone charger, in case I needed to wait long for the others once it was time to head to the agency.

But I won't dwell on that now. I need to keep my head on straight so I can get through school. If I really need to let it out at the agency, then I will.

Hana wanted to walk with me, but she was already meeting someone on the way. I’m glad she’s made friends, though, so she doesn’t go into high school alone, when the time comes.

When the time comes... I hope I can help her with those studies, when the time comes. She deserves to keep that shoulder to lean on for as long as she needs. And when she’s old enough to not need that shoulder anymore, I’ll still be supporting her in anything she decides to do.

Big sister duties. Gotta love ‘em.

I’d locked my front door with a sigh, then slipped my key into my bag so I cou—

“Oh!”

I’d turned around to begin my journey to school, but was greeted by a familiar face at the sidewalk, looking right at me.

“Yo,” Misaki calmly waved, “Aya-senpai. Fancy seein’ you up and about.”

I jogged down to her. Was she waiting for me, or was this just a coincidence?

“What’re you doing out this way?” I decided to ask her.

“Oh, uh...” Misaki then pulled her bag around to dig inside it. “I had something for you. Wanted to give it to you in person instead of handin’ it off to someone to give to you.”

There was a subtle voice crack at the end of that last bit, followed by a nervous chuckle.

“I was gonna head up to your door, but I don’t...have a valid reason for knowing where you live. I got your address from Kokoro’s suit buddies. Or...more like...they showed me where you live. I dunno how to describe it without feeling like a creepo.”

Eh... To be honest, I feel like I should be concerned by that, but...it’s Kokoro. I trust Kokoro. It’s better that she knows where I live, rather than some random stranger from social media.

Misaki then pulled out a felt doll, slightly bigger than my hand, and handed it to—...

...To me. She handed a felt Hina, smiling in her magical girl attire, to me.

I looked up at her, confused. When did she have the time to make this...? And why is this outfit so spot-on? When did she see Hina like this?

But I didn’t want to invalidate such a lovely gift. Anything of Hina that I can hold onto is enough for me, even though my heart still aches for her.

“Misaki-chan...” I gently held the doll to my chest, sniffling. “Thank you. But how did you—...?”

“I also wanted to talk to you,” she admitted, motioning for me to follow her to school. I calmly did. “I’d seen Hina-san the night before she disappeared.”

She also worded it as her being missing... I guess only PasuRevo and Roseglow are going to know about the specifics.

I slid the doll into my bag as she went on, going off of a deep exhale.

“Yeah, we all did,” she confirmed at the end of her sigh. “All of HaroHapi. Kokoro wanted to go witch hunting immediately.”

There was another sigh as she looked on ahead, giving off a hint of melancholy as she recalled that night.

“We’d found her on a roof, somewhere in the middle of the city. She ‘kinda looked like she was sulking.”

Sulking? Since when did Hina ever sulk?

“Well...” She shrugged. “To me, at least. It looked like she had a lot on her mind.”

She then looked to me out of the corner of her eye.

“I didn’t get much of anything out of her, unfortunately. I tried to, but she brushed it off every time. So I wanted to ask you if you or anyone else in PasuPare had any ideas about what was up.”

To think this was the night before everything happened... I’m a bit shocked that there’s more to the story than what we all thought we knew. Then again, we’re all pretty much in the dark with this. I doubt even Hina knew this was going to happen.

But Chisato might be a different story.

“Have you mentioned this to anyone else?” I had to ask.

“There aren’t very many that’ve been open to conversation...” Misaki sighed again. “Yamato-san being at another school is hard enough. Sure, I have her number, but this kind of thing doesn’t feel like something that’d be very appropriate for over the phone. As for the others...”

She paused for a moment or two, then shook her head.

“Nada. But, to be fair, you’re the easiest to talk to, out of the five of you. You and Yamato-san are the only ones I’d consider mentioning this to.”

I am? I’m flattered, Misaki. Thank you. To be honest, I could probably say the same about her and Kanon, HaroHapi-wise.

That was basically the gist of our conversation until we got to the school gate.

“Misaki-chan!” Kanon announced our arrival almost immediately, jogging on over to us. “And Aya-chan! I’m glad you’re doing better! How are you feeling?”

Oh, yeah... I told her I was sick. Whoops.

“A lot better now,” I lied yet again, “thanks.”

“Is something up?” Misaki wondered. I could feel the nervous energy radiating off of her.

Kanon opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder.

“Aya-chan," Chisato greeted with her signature warm smile. "I'm glad to see you."

"Chisato-chan..." I couldn't get anything else out of my mouth

Here she is. Chisato looks perfectly normal, like nothing had ever happened on Sunday. How could she possibly be so calm...?

Chisato shifted her gaze to Misaki, holding onto the cool and collected character she always presented.

"Please excuse me..." She moved from Kanon to me. "I have to steal Aya-chan before class starts."

She then looked back to Kanon.

"Can you meet me outside of our classroom in, say...fifteen minutes? I shouldn't be too long."

"Oh, of course!" Kanon quickly nodded before taking Misaki by the hand and jogging inside the building with her.

Did...something happen? There isn't a witch in the school, is there?! Oh, I sure hope not. I don't think I could handle another witch right now, especially after Sunday...

Chisato gently took my hand with both of hers, then held it at chest level.

"I'm truly, truly glad to see you," she repeats, holding my hand a bit tighter. "I was this close to asking Rinko-chan for the homework and notes for you."

Oh, uh--

"But please... Allow me to apologize formally later. I wanted to go and see you, give you my own perspective on this, but I felt like Kasumi-chan would do better at lifting your spirits than I ever could."

I mean, Kasumi definitely was a big help, but there's still so much that I'm confused about.

Why does it feel like I'm the only one standing still? Chisato's easily leagues ahead of me in every way. Is this because of her experience, though? Has she seen so many magical girls come and go, that losing someone as important as Hina doesn't even bother her now?

I'm not entirely sure if I can accept that. Hina's such a unique person, I haven't even begun to try to process what life would be like without her around. Chisato couldn't have moved on already.

...Right?

"Is something going on?" I whispered. This weird suspense thing was killing me.

Chisato didn't answer me. Instead, she began to lead me inside the school, like I hadn't even said anything.

Oh, okay.

~*~

"Oh! Aya-san!"

We'd found Eve on the school's rooftop. She was sitting off to the side with her bag, against the fence.

I waved to her. I guess this is why Chisato needed me.

"Thanks for meeting us up here on such short notice," Chisato greeted with a slight bow as we both left the doorway. "It wasn't too hard to get away from Kasumi-chan and the others, was it?"

"Kasumi-san was curious," Eve began to explain as Chisato and I sat down next to her, "but I figured it was magical girl business, so Saya-san kept her in the classroom. No worries!"

She then tilted her head slightly to the side.

"What's the matter, though? Is there a witch close by that we've missed?"

Chisato's smile quickly faded, wiping away to reveal the seriousness of the conversation.

...I'm afraid.

"We were wrong about the source of Sunday's witch," she noted, gently pulling Eve and I closer to her by our sleeves.

"The witch..." I repeated subconsciously. "The speeding train, right?"

What was so wrong with that witch...? It took me the entire first day of mulling over why this had even happened to come up with some kind of conclusion.

That fragmented memory we saw of someone reminiscing a time with Hina... That was a memory from Sayo. It had to have been. It was her arm, her hand, her phone, her everything. That was definitely Sayo.

But...

"Yes," Chisato confirmed, "that one."

She tapped her index finger to her chin in thought, moving her gaze from Eve and I to the concrete at our feet.

"Lisa-chan came to find me shortly after we'd all gone our separate ways. She wanted to see if I knew who that witch was."

She looked back up, then wagged a finger in the air.

"That was Sayo-chan, but not at the same time. Our world's Sayo-chan is still alive. She's not even a magical girl."

She...is?

Wait a second. If Hina didn't defeat Sayo's witch, but she also did, then--...

Ow. This is as confusing as when I saw two Tsugumis.

"There's more time travelers..." Eve nodded, deeply concentrating on Chisato's words. "This is interesting! We're truly living among masters of stealth! The best ninjas out there!"

"But why would another Sayo-chan's Grief Seed be here...?" I wondered. "How could it get to another timeline entirely without anyone else knowing?"

Someone that's not Roseglow that knows of PasuRevo's name... Whoever they are, they have some sort of tie to Sayo. A Sayo from another timeline entirely...

PasuRevo...

Can we...really still call ourselves that? PasuRevo isn't complete without the five of us. To even think for a moment that we should feels so...wrong.

"Are we even still PasuRevo, though...?" I had to say it. I had to. "Hina-chan even said we're not PasuRevo without all five of us together. Holding onto that name without her doesn't sit well with me..."

They both looked to me, almost like they could agree with that pain. Or maybe they looked so upset because tears were starting to surface.

"I get what you mean, but..." Chisato lightly placed a hand on my knee. "They wouldn't want us to give up. There's so, so much out there that wants to tear the world down and destroy it. If we stop fighting, we'd be joining them in destroying it. Destroying what they worked so hard to protect."

They...? But we're talking about...only Hina, ri--

"Chisato-san...?" Eve tapped Chisato on the shoulder, keeping her hand on it afterwards. "Who are you refe--"

"Please excuse me," she quickly interrupted, standing up with a jolt. "Please...let Maya-chan know the...news."

She was off of the roof in a matter of seconds.

Eve and I looked to each other, partially in confusion, but more in concern.

There was a crack in Chisato's voice that neither of us normally heard, if we'd ever heard it before. Neither of us could even begin to imagine what got her so choked up.

It was like that advice was rehearsed... I don't know about Eve, but I'm definitely much, much more worried about this than I was when I woke up this morning.

Where do we even begin...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 2019! Have some fuckery. I've been taking this chapter slow so I could actually word said fuckery the way I wanted to.
> 
> Thus the mysteries begin to surface their hints! I'm glad. These hints were written back at the start of this fic's creation. It's been a long, long wait.


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